


Calamity’s Child

by tell_them_stories



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gay Billy Hargrove, Homophobic Language, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Masturbation, Neil Hargrove Being an Asshole, Period-Typical Homophobia, Physical Abuse, Queer Steve Harrington, Season 3 Spoilers, Smart Billy Hargrove, if you haven't seen season three this won't make any sense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 21:41:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19754338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tell_them_stories/pseuds/tell_them_stories
Summary: When his dad makes home a hard place to be this summer, Billy find solace in the unlikeliest of ice-cream shops. Only now there are Russians, interdimensional portals, and too many teenage brats running around for Billy's liking.This is a complete re-write of season 3 from Billy's perspective. In this version Billy is NOT flayed. But he does find himself caught up in Scoops Troop shenanigans. Side helping of Harringrove, you're welcome.This is literally the first fic I have ever written. So constructive criticism is genuinely welcome, but be nice!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter specific warning: some mentions of physical abuse by Neil and the very beginning of a panic attack.

Summer in Hawkins was shit. Billy missed the salt air, the beaches and the cooling sea breeze of California.

Hawkins was humid and the closest Billy could get to a beach was the fucking public pool. The place was crawly with bratty kids and adults who seemed to pass all of their parenting responsibilities to the lifeguards as soon as they got through the gates.

The pool was open long hours in the summer and Billy had taken the later shift for the past couple of weeks. Starting at midday, locking up at eight. It worked for him, he could sleep in and avoid Neil in the morning, be out for the whole day and only come home at night. That was one of the good things about working there.

He stubbed out the end of his cigarette, rolled another and got out of the Camaro. He’d had to walk to work for the last two days as Neil and confiscated the keys when Billy had forgotten to do the dishes. It was good to have her back. Walking in the summer heat had been hell.

Today was another hot one. They were pushing 95 degrees. Sweet dripped down Billy’s back as he headed through the carpark and through the pool entrance. He gave cursory nod to Adam and Zoe who were flirting at the front desk.

Billy smirked to himself as he remembered how Zoe had started the summer flirting with him, but had moved on to Adam when it’d become clear Billy wasn’t interested.

He passed through the ‘staff only’ doors into their locker room, took off his tank top, grabbed his whistle from the hook and headed out poolside. Across the pool he saw the middle-aged ladies of Hawkins shift on their deckchairs and primp their hair as they always did when he started his shift. He grinned and headed in their direction.

This was the other benefit of working at the pool. A public pool meant public flirting opportunities. Let everyone think he’s into older women. That was how he’d managed to get Zoe to back off in the end. He could be seen chasing women without actually having to follow through. They were all married. As much as they might fantasise about him, they’d never do anything. The perfect cover.

Part of him also hoped that it would get back to Neil somehow, that his son had been flirting with women. Billy knew it wouldn’t really make a difference to what Neil thought of him. Not after what had happened back in California. But he still hoped.

“Like the new suit, Mrs Wheeler. Looks real good,” Billy looked her up and down slowly and winked as he passed.

He settled into the lifeguard tower, dropped his sunglasses down over his eyes and scanned the pool lazily.

He spotted a kid running almost immediately and blew his whistle shrilly.

“Oi, in the blue shorts,” he yelled across the pool.

Everyone stopped and a small kid in blue board shorts looked across at him fearfully.

“Can you read?” Billy yelled.

The kid nodded.

“Then you would have seen all the signs that say ‘no running’.” Billy gestured to the signs up on every fence.

“They’re not just decoration, kid. You run again and I’m banning you for life. You wanna be banned for life?”

The kids gave a quick shake of his head.

“Yeah. Didn’t think so,” Billy blew his whistle again and the pool returned to its usual loud chaos.

* * *

“Billy?”

Billy jumped. He hadn’t seen Mrs Wheeler approaching, but she was now standing at the bottom of his tower looking up expectantly.

He lifted his glasses, plastered on his best sultry smirk and lowered his voice to purr.

“What can I do for you Mrs Wheeler?”

“Well, I was just wondering if I could talk to you. You know, about… pool safety.”

That surprised him. Usually she would come over, bring up something inane like the weather, Billy would throw in a few thinly veiled innuendo. And that would be that. Mrs. Wheeler would return to her deckchair with a wistful look in her eye.

“Uh, sure,” Billy wasn’t sure where this was going. He didn’t like the feeling.

“In private.”

“Okay.”

He climbed down from the tower and followed Mrs. Wheeler around the pool, back into the building, and through to the storage room full of pool equipment and their first aid dummy.

“I heard you were giving lessons, Billy,” Mrs. Wheeler said breathily.

“I mean, yeah. For the kids you know. It’s important… to learn how to swim, I guess…” He sounded unsure even to himself.

He was used to being in control of these conversations. Biting his lip, looking at her through his eyelashes. Knowing exactly what to do make her blush or giggle. But he couldn’t quite work out how to get the upper hand here.

A sudden though flashed into his mind. Maybe he’d never really been in control. Maybe she’d just let him think he was. And now they were alone and she kept stepping closer.

“It is a very important thing to learn. I was thinking maybe you could teach me.” She got closer still.

“I could ask Adam about starting an adult class, if you want,” Billy took another step away and his back hit the shelf. “But you know how to swim Mrs. Wheeler, I’ve seen you here all summer.”

“Well, I was thinking maybe a one-on-one lesson. To really work on my… form, you know.”

“Oh.”

“I was hoping you might give me a few pointers on breast stroke.”

“Oh.”

It was all Billy could think to say. He brain seemed have short circuited, and Mrs. Wheeler was too close. For all the flirting they had done, Billy had never though what he would do if she…

“The Motel 6 down on Cornwallis has a pool that would work for private lessons. We could meet there. Tonight maybe?” Mrs. Wheeler reached up and ran her had down Billy’s bicep from shoulder to elbow.

It was the touch that did it. Billy’s brain suddenly caught up with his body.

“I’m busy, real busy tonight. So I can’t. And right now, I’ve got to go and… I just gotta… I should get back. Someone could have drowned, you know,” he said with a forced laugh.

Billy side-stepped Mrs. Wheeler, leaving her alone in the storage room. He had to force himself not to break the no running rule as he headed back to his tower.

Billy dropped his sunglasses back down over his eyes and focused in breathing evenly. He chanced a look over at the deckchairs and saw Mrs. Wheeler speaking to the other women with a frown on her face. One-by-one they packed up their towels and bags and headed out of the pool without a backwards glance.

Billy barely paid attention to the rest of his shift. The little boy in blue shorts ran all the way from one end of the pool to the other. Billy watched him do it without so much as reaching for his whistle. When 8pm rolled round he climbed down from the tower, shooed the last of the swimmers from the pool and began to close up.

He was always the last one to leave. He covered the pool, shut of the lights and locked the gates. It was completely dark by the time he was finished and he wanted nothing more to head home and crash.

The problem was Max. Chances were she was still out at the arcade or one of her friends’ houses, playing some nerdy game. Billy knew that if he got home before Max, it would be his fault that she was out too late. That kind of stuff was always his fault.

He slid into the Camaro, started the engine and tried to think. Where would she be? He knew that she and Lucas were still close. He’d given up on trying to break them up and instead made sure that she knew never to tell Neil. He refused to think what Neil would do if he found out.

He drove over to the Sinclair’s, parked up and knocked on the front door. Lucas’s mother answered, Billy knew her only as Mrs. Sinclair. She was kind, but not a woman to mess with.

“Hello Mrs. Sinclair, it’s nice to see you again. Is Max here?”

She gave a nod of assent and said, “Come on in.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” He headed down the hallway to Lucas’s room and knocked on the door.

“Not now mom,” Lucas called.

Billy pushed the door open. Lucas and Max were perched on Lucas’ bed with comic books spread out around them.

“Uggghh, not now Billy, we’re in the middle of something,” Max sighed.

“We need to go, now,” Billy said. He tried to keep the menace out of his voice. Mrs. Sinclair had followed him down the hall and was standing behind him.

“I don’t mind if they stay a little longer. My husband is watching the game, you could join him until these two are all finished,” she said.

“No.”

Billy could tell it had come out harshly by the way Mrs. Sinclair’s smile dropped. He forced a smile back onto his face and said, “I’m really sorry but my dad needs Max to come home. Now.”

He looked back at Max and saw a flicker of understanding pass across her face.

“Okay,” she said.

“No, Max, come on. We’re almost done with this issue. I don’t want to read it without you,” Lucas said.

“Well don’t then,” Max smiled back at him. “But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out how it ends. I gotta go.”

Billy sighed in relief. He didn’t have the energy to argue with Max tonight.

Max packed up her things, said goodbye to Lucas and slid into the front seat of the Camaro. They drove in silence for a full two minutes before Billy surprised himself by saying a quiet, “thank you.”

Max looked taken aback. They had been getting on better of the last few months. But Billy saying thank you was still pretty fucking rare.

“No worries,” Max said as she reached over to the radio and turned it on.

The pulled up with 5 minutes to spare before Max’s 9.30pm curfew. Billy wasn’t stupid enough to believe that would save him. It always depended on Neil’s mood. He turned off the ignition and prepared himself. He could feel Max looking at him from the passenger seat.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Max followed him out of the car, up the path and through the front door. As they entered the living room, Neil looked up from the television.

“You’re out late.”

Billy’s heart dropped. He was on time. Early even. But he knew that wouldn’t change anything.

“Sorry, sir,” he said, looking at the floor.

Neil pushed himself up off the couch and turned to face Billy.

“It’s my fault.”

Billy looked down at Max in shock. She never spoke up when Neil was in this kind of mood.

“It’s my fault,” she repeated. “I was out at El’s, you know with Chief Hopper. He was showing us something with his police radio and I made Billy wait. It’s my fault,” Max finished quietly.

Billy held his breathe.

“Well, okay then. Not so late next time.”

“Yes, sir,” Billy nodded.

Neil seemed oblivious to the rush of relief that had filled Billy’s body. He had turned his attention back to the TV and sunk into the couch again.

Billy took several shaky breathes and moved, as if on autopilot, towards his room.

He turned back to look for Max. She was standing in the doorway of her own room looking at him with a worried expression on her face. He wanted to say thank you again but his heart was still in his throat and the words wouldn’t come. He instead managed a shaky half-smile before shutting his door and throwing himself down on his bed.

Billy couldn’t make sense of what he was feeling. Relief and panic and the same time. It had come so close. He could tell by the way Neil had been looking at him. If Max hadn’t spoken up… His heart started to race as he began imagining what could have happened. What _would_ have happened.

He needed to stop thinking. He got up from his bed, plugged his headphones into his record player and dropped the needle down. He lay back down on his bed and closed his eyes and let his mind wander as Led Zeplin’s Ramble On filled his ears.

Faces swam in front of him. Neil, Susan, Max. His mother, always his mother. He imagined her sitting with him like she used to do whenever he had felt panicked. Breathing with him, helping his thoughts to slow down.

As he relaxed Billy’s mind shifted again. Ever since they’d moved to Hawkins, it always ended up in the same place. Steve Harrington.

Steve’s face swam in front of him now. Not bruised and bloody, the way he’d left it last year. But bright with the airheaded happiness Steve seemed to imamate. His famous hair now flattened by his Scoops hat.

Billy smiled to himself. He’d seen Steven in his uniform last week when Steve had picked the kids up from the pool. That little sailor outfit had been adorable. Billy had been so tempted to walk over and talk to Steve then. But Billy hadn’t said a word to him since that night.

He’d regretted it even as it was happening. But he hadn’t been able to stop himself. Neil had been giving him a hard time and that always put Billy in to a mood. A kind of frenzied state he could never figure out how to get out of.

If he was at school, it made it impossible to concentrate. If he was talking to Max, it made him cruel. And if he was faced with a fight, he always took it too far. There was something wrong with him. He already knew he was a bad person, but somehow Neil somehow made it worse.

Lately though, he’d be trying so hard not to be. He was making an effort with Max. He’d apologised to Lucas.

He just hadn’t been able to bring himself to approach Steve. But he had the day off tomorrow. Maybe it would finally be the day he summoned the courage to apologise to him. Hell, he’d said ‘thank you’ to Max today, might as well keep up the trend.

As Billy drifted to sleep thinking about Steve Harrington his record player skipped and the electricity across Hawkins flickered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter specific warnings: homophobic slur, masturbation.

Billy woke at 10am the next morning to bright sunshine filtering though the thin blanket he’d taped up to cover his window. He’d pushed his headphones off during the night and was lying on his stomach with the covers half on the floor.

He could hear Max clanking about out in the kitchen. Neil and Susan would already be at work. Billy smiled into his pillow. At least for the first few hours of the day he could walk around his house without fear.

A little while later he heard the front door slam as Max left and he hauled himself out of bed into the kitchen. He stopped. Max had left bacon and eggs on the table with a full glass of orange juice. Was she coming back?

Usually when she left she was out for the whole day. And there were her own dirty dishes in the sink with the remnants of bacon grease and runny egg yolk. The only conclusion Billy could draw was that she’d left breakfast for him. Out of nowhere a strange feeling came over him and the corner of his eyes pricked. Billy pushed it away grabbed a fork from the draw and dug in.

When he was done he washed his dishes and Max’s, and stacked them neatly on the drying wrack. He leant against the kitchen bench, thinking about what to do with his day off.

Nothing much to do in this shithole town. Too small for anything real to be happening. Well, that wasn’t totally true Billy thought. The new mall had opened a month ago and Billy was yet to give it a look.

He could check it out today. Have a shower and head in. Billy pushed of the bench and headed for the bathroom. He turned the shower up to an almost scolding temperature before stepping in.

He had some money saved up from working at the pool. He needed to put some gas in the Camaro, but he’d still have enough to buy a new record. Maybe the new Motley Crue. There would be a record store somewhere in the mall, surely.

And Steve Harrington works at the mall too, a little voice in his head supplied.

Steve. That’s right, Billy had been thinking about apologising to him. He had been thinking about apologising to him ever since he had beaten him to a pulp last year. Max hadn’t talked to Billy for a month after that, which Billy though was rich given that she was the one who stabbed him with some kind tranquiliser.

But he had stayed out of Steve’s way since then. Barely even looked at him, except when he thought no one else was looking. He just couldn’t pass up a chance to look the older boy up and down when he saw him at the gas station, or walking through town.

The best thing about the summer heat in Hawkins was Steve Harrington in shorts. When Billy had seen him across the street the other day, Steve had been wearing dark green ones that looked so good against his pale skin. They rode up as he walked exposing the top of his thigh. Billy liked to imagine running his hand up under the bottom hem. Steve shivering in pleasure as he did it.

Under the stream of shower water Billy felt his cock start to fill out at the thought.

He leaned back against the tiles, running his hands slowly up and down his sides. He tweaked a nipple with his left hand and let is right trail downwards to grip himself lightly.

He liked to tease himself. Slow strokes at first. Not quite enough friction to really get him going. He brushed a thumb over his nipple again and whined in need.

He rubbed his thumb over the head of his cock, collecting the precum. Pumping faster. Pleasure snaked up his spine. He was gripping himself firmly now.

He closed his eyes and the image of Steve in his Scoops sailor uniform swam before him.

Billy imagined Steve stepping into the shower with him, not bothering to take the uniform off. It clung, hot and wet, to his body. He imaged reaching out, putting a hand on Steve’s hip, drawing him closer. It was Steve’s hand on him. Steve crowding him back against the tiles, licking a stripe from his pulse point to his ear.

“Steve,” he groaned. He reached down with his left hand to massage his balls gently. His breath hitched and his hand trailed further back, brushing firmly against his hole. He arched up into his hand.

“Cum for me, baby,” his imaginary Steve whispered in his ear.

Billy came with a loud groan that echoed in the small bathroom. He continued to pump himself slowly as he felt his cock start to soften.

“Fuck,” he sighed, stepping back under the stream of water to finish his shower.

* * *

He tried on three different shirts before settling for a deep blue, unbuttoned down to his navel and tucked into his jeans.

He knew he was being stupid. Steve Harrington wasn’t going to notice that the colour matched his eyes perfectly. He wasn’t going to notice the aftershave Billy had on, or the way Billy had carefully styled his curls to flop over his face just so.

It took Billy and hour and a half to get ready, by the time he got to the mall it was 1pm and crawling with mallrats. All the kids who weren’t at the pool, were apparently here.

Billy thought about searching for a record store first, but he knew if he didn’t go straight to Scoops there’d be a good chance he’d lose his nerve. He sighed and made his way towards the ice cream shop in the food court.

Steve was nowhere to be seen. A girl Billy thought he recognised from school stood at the counter arguing with a kid Billy knew was Lucas’s little sister, Erika. He’d seen her at Lucas’s house from time to time when he was picking up Max.

“Maximom 15 free samples a day. That’s the rule,” the girl behind the counter was saying.

“Uh, I don’t think so. That sign clearly says I can have as many free samples as it takes me to choose. I haven’t made up my mind yet, so I would like. another. sample.” Erika punctuated her last three words with loud claps.

For once Billy felt grateful that he worked at the pool. At least he could threaten people with a lifetime ban.

The girl behind the counter, her nametag said Robin, sighed and scoped out a little spoon of butterscotch ice cream, handing it to the kid with a sarcastic smile.

“Now go away. I have paying customers,” she gestured towards Billy.

The kid left with her group of friends in tow, and Billy moved towards the counter.

“Ah…”

“Yes?” asked Robin.

Billy knew what to do with girls. He dropped his voice lower and gave her a suggestive look up and down.

“As much as I’d love to be talking to you right now honey, I’m actually I’m looking for Steve. He in?”

Robin raised her eyebrow and looked totally unmoved by Billy’s clear flirting.

“Yeah he’s in. On lunchbreak out the back at the moment. Although,” she said looking at her watch, “he should be back around now. “

She turned her head and yelled, “Steve!”

“He should be back in any minute,” she said turning back around to Billy.

Billy nodded and they stood in awkward silence.

He felt like he should say something, but Robin had kind of thrown him off his game. He’d pulled out the patented Billy Hargrove purr and she hadn’t so much as blushed.

“Uh, I’m Billy by the way,” he eventually blurted out.

“I know who you are. You the one who shoved Bruce Jenkins into a locker when he was trying to give me a valentine’s card.”

Billy didn’t remember doing that. But it sounded like something he would do. He always picked fights whenever Neil had had a go at him the day before.

“You gave him a bloody nose.”

Billy had been getting better at recognising when he should apologise. He knew this was one of those times. But there was still a fire in him that reacted defensively. Wanted to lash out and hurt this girl just for making him feel like he had something to apologise for.

“Aw was your little boyfriend hurt. Why didn’t you just kiss him better,” he said sarcastically. 

“He’s not my boyfriend,” she shivered as though the thought itself was horrible. “He’s kind of creepy actually, and I definitely didn’t want a valentine from him. But you were a total jerk.”

“If he’s so creepy then what’s the problem. I saved you the trouble of pretending you like the valentine.”

“You called him a fag. That’s the problem.”

“What do you care?”

Robin took a deep breath. “I care because… I care because you just shouldn’t call people that stuff. It hurts.”

Billy knew that. It was Neil’s favourite thing to call him. Usually he’d reserve it for when he was actually giving Billy a beating. But sometimes he’d just drop it in casually. Say Billy was dressed like a fag just as Billy was leaving the house. Or tell him only fag-boys are good at English when Billy got an A on his essay about Shakespeare.

He knew those words hurt. And there was something in the way Robin was looking at him that made him feel like she understood how much it hurt to hear people say these things too. 

“I know,” he said quietly. “I know it hurts. I… I’m…” He couldn’t quiet bring himself to say the word sorry. But Robin seemed to get it. She was looking at him with understanding in her eyes.

“Okay. Well, I’m glad we got that cleared up. Now where the hell is Steve?” She turned her back to Billy again and yelled, “Steve! I’m going on my break now, and you’ve got a customer!”

“When he finally gets his arse out here,” she said to Billy. “Tell him I’m on my break and I’ll be back in half an hour.”

Billy nodded and Robin made her way around the counter and headed out into the mall.

Billy watched her go. He got the feeling she’d seen something in him just then. Something close to the truth about him. Usually that shit freaked him out. He’d be working twice as hard to cover his tracks. Prove the assumptions false. But for some reason he wasn’t worried about that with Robin.

Before he could think about that too much he heard a door swing open and --

“Ahoy! How can I help y--”

Steve stopped mid-sentence as he caught sight of Billy. The smile dropped from his face.

“What do you want?” he asked coldly.

That snapped Billy back to reality. He was sliding back into antagonism before he could stop himself.

“I dunno, pretty boy. You think, being that I’m in an ice cream shop, I might want some ice cream?” Billy asked, with a smirk plastered across his face.

Steve ground his teeth. Billy could see his jaw working and his smirk widened.

“What flavour?” Steve eventually ground out.

“Hmmm I don’t know,” Billy tapped the counter pretending to think. “What’s your favourite, Princess?”

Steve glared at him. Under his smirk Billy felt his mood drop. This wasn’t right, this wasn’t the way he wanted to come in here. It was just so easy to fall back into the same routine. He needed to turn this around, but he had no idea how.

“… but only if you’re having it in a cone,” Steve finished.

He looked at Billy expectantly, clearly waiting for an answer.

“Uh, what?” said Billy.

“Look, man. If you just came to mess with me, you can actually just fuck off,” Steve said.

“No, I wasn’t… I just wanted… what I came here for… I mean, I was…” Billy couldn’t seem to get the words out. He started to feel a blush rise up his neck and onto his cheeks. One look up told him that Steve had noticed too.

Billy took a steadying breathe and said, “ijustcametosaysorryalright”

“Uh, I didn’t catch that, man,” Steve said in confusion.

“Forget it,” Billy said and turned to leave. Before he got halfway to the door Steve had rushed around the counter and jumped in front of him.

“What did you say? Because it kinda sounded like you mighta been saying sorry”

“So you did hear me?” Billy asked, not looking at Steve.

“I wasn’t sure if-” Steve began before he was interrupted.

“Excuuuuse me. I’m back for the free sample I am owed, and you better not keep me waiting like that girl did!”

Steve glared over Billy’s shoulder at Erika, who was standing, hands on hips, at the counter.

Steve looked back to Billy.

“Look, can you just stay a second while I deal with this.”

“I dunno, man. It was dumb to come here anyway. I’m just gonna go.”

“No,” Steve said. “Just… just wait out back. Come on.” Steve walked back to around counter and gestured for Billy to follow him and head out a door to the back of the shop.

Billy hesitated.

“Hargrove, please, just wait in the back,” Steve said.

“I don’t have all day!” came Erika’s voice.

“Billy, please,” Steve said.

Billy wasn’t sure if it was the fact that Steve used his first name or the way he’d looked at him with wide, imploring eyes. He just knew that he was moving towards the back, past Steve and through the door.

He sat himself down at the table and stared blankly around at the little space.

Some empty boxes, a half stacked steriliser full of ice cream scoops and a white board with ‘you rock|you suck” written across the top. Judging by the tally, someone really sucked.

He was interrupted in his thoughts as Steve came back into the room and dropped a little cup of ice cream in front of him.

“What’s this for?” Billy asked without looking up.

“I dunno, man. I thought that, being as you were in an ice cream shop, you might want some ice cream.”

Hearing his own words repeated back at him Billy looked up to see Steve smiling cautiously. Billy nodded in thanks and scooped a small spoonful into his mouth.

“It’s butterscotch. Good right?” Steve said happily.

Billy nodded again.

“So… you didn’t just come for ice cream?” Steve prompted.

Billy sighed deeply and looked at Steve.

“I just want to explain about that night. Not that I can really explain it. But I just want you to know, I want you to understand what happened.”

Steve looked for a moment like he was going to say that he already knew what happened. But his face cleared and he nodded for Billy to continue.

“Sometimes I get in this mood. Like a spring wound real tight see.” Billy looked at Steve and knew that he was going to have to do better than a cliché metaphor. He sighed and started again.

“Sometimes things happen in my family. At home. Not good things. And, Neil, that’s my dad. He gets real bent out of shape about these things and…” Billy stopped again.

He couldn’t go down that road, couldn’t explain what his dad did. He didn’t want Steve’s doe-eyes to fill with pity. He tried again.

“Sometimes things just happen, most of the time out of my control. But they get me in this keyed up mood. And my skin is all itchy and my mouth feels swollen and my brain… it’s like there’s a room in my brain where I keep all my logic, and these bad things happen and it just locks, and I can’t get to it.

And that night, I didn’t want to be hurting you. And I could see that I was. And I was screaming at that door in my brain to let me in so that I could stop. But it wouldn’t open and I just kept hitting you and… I just… It was like I was hitting me. I really thought I was hitting me, even though at the same time I knew I wasn’t.

Does that make sense? No, shit, of course it doesn’t. It’s fucking crazy. These things happen and I go crazy and I just…” Billy could feel his heart rate rising and his eyes pricking with tears. Embarrassed, he ducked his head, took a breath and said, “I’m sorry. I’m just sorry, okay?”

Steve was silent for so long Billy started to feel uncomfortable. He looked up at Steve and found the older boy considering him with such intensity he had to look away again.

“You’re sorry?” Steve finally asked.

“Yes”

“Okay,”

“Okay?” Billy asked.

“Okay,” Steve repeated.

From the front a voice called, “does anybody even work at this place? I’m not leaving till I get the sample that is rightfully mine.”

Steve rolled his eyes, sighed, and stood up from the table.

“Ban her for life, that’s what I do at the pool,” Billy suggested with a weak smile.

Steve smiled back, “God I wish that was an option.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please check below for the specific warnings for this chapter - there's definitely some stuff that could be triggering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Specific Warnings: heavy homophobia from Neil, homophobic slurs, description of physical abuse by Neil. Brief description of injuries and small panic. Please don't read if that will be triggering for you.

Billy got home around 4pm with a smile still on his face.

Steve had accepted his apology and something about the way the older boy had looked at him made Billy believe that Steve might actually have understood what Billy had been trying to tell him. Not all of it of course, but enough that he could hear about Billy going crazy and still just say, “okay.”

Billy headed into the kitchen, took his and Max’s dishes from the drying wrack and placed them in the cupboard. He grabbed a glass from the shelf and went to the fridge for juice.

The latest power bill and a card with Susan’s next doctor appointment lay on the floor along with the two magnets that should have held them to the fridge door.

Billy frowned and bent to pick them up. He tried to stick them back on the fridge but the magnets wouldn’t hold. A small part of his brain found this odd and began flicking through different scientific explanations for it. The rest of his brain was flying into a panic.

It seemed so small, so trivial, but if Neil was in the wrong mood tonight these stupid fucking magnets could kick it all off. He’d started shit over smaller stuff in the past. He tried frantically to stick them back to the fridge but they wouldn’t hold.

There were other magnets in Max’s room he remembered. Souvenirs from a trip Max and Susan had taken to the Grand Canyon.

Billy stumbled to her room and began to look. Not on her desk, or in her draws.

“Damn it, Max,” he growled.

He checked the book shelves next and with relief he saw that, sitting on top of a board game box, were two little magnets. One like a little fake licence plate with _Grand Canyon, Arizona_ written on it, and the other a simple photo of the Canyon with a magnetic baking.

Billy breathed in relief and strode back to the fridge. He stuck the power bill on with the little licence plate. It immediately fell to the floor.

“Shit, no. Please,” Billy whined.

He tried the photo and it fell as well. Somewhere in the back of his mind he thought, “some sort of electro-magnetic field?”

But he couldn’t concentrate on that. This would be Billy’s fault. Neil would come home and find the bill on the floor, or the bench, or wherever Billy had to put it. And it would be Billy’s fault. Neil would say that Billy had been trying to mess with the bill, lose it so that Neil couldn’t pay it in time. Or that Billy had done something to the fridge to fuck the magnets up.

It wouldn’t matter what Billy said or did. It was his fault.

He left everything on the floor and walked blankly to his room. He lay down on his bed to wait.

* * *

Neil came home an hour later. Billy heard him unlock the door, flick on the lights, and move down the hallway. A door opened and shut and then Neil was stomping back down the hallway to bang on Billy’s door.

“Open up you worthless piece of shit!”

Billy stood and opened the door.

Neil was on him immediately, shoving him into the room and smashing him up against the wall.

“Where is she?”

“Who?” Billy asked faintly.

“Who? Who the fuck do you think? Max. Where is she? You were supposed to have her home by 5 today. Susan wanted to take her to a movie. You disrespecting Susan now?”

“No, sir. I—“

Neil’s hand found Billy throat and tightened.

“I didn’t know. I didn’t know she needed to be home,” Billy choked out. He felt hot tears rolling down his cheeks. He knew what came next.

_Crack_. Neil slapped across the face so hard Billy’s ears rang with it.

“You crying, you little pussy. Trying to make me feel sorry for you?”

“No, sir,” Billy choked.

_Crack_. A second blow to his temple made his vision blur.

“Well, I’m not feeling sorry for no faggot,” Neil yelled, his spit landing across Billy face.

The front door banged open.

“I’m here. Sorry I’m late I was just—“ Max stopped dead in Billy’s doorway, looking between Neil and Billy.

Billy saw her fists ball and jaw lock. She was going to defend him. Billy’s eyes widened, that would not end well for anyone.

He shook his head just a tiny bit, hoping she would get the hint. Max saw the movement and hesitated just long enough for Neil to come to his senses, let go of Billy, and turn to say, “all ready for the movie, kiddo?”

Max still looked uncertain but Billy nodded at her from behind Neil’s back. She slowly unballed her fists, put on a weak smile and said, “sure, let’s go.”

As they headed out together Billy sank to the floor and let his tears fall. He breaths came in huge, strained gulps. He crawled towards his bed and covered himself in blankets. His last thought was of the damn fridge magnets. How stupid he’d been to be worried about them when he should have been out finding Max.

* * *

Billy woke late the next morning with a splitting headache. He rolled gingerly out of bed and hauled himself to the bathroom. He stood in front of the vanity, preparing himself before looking up.

His left eye was just starting to go black and blue around the socket. There was also a line of small bruises starting around his neck. The rest of his face was a mess too. Caked in dried blood. Billy didn’t remember bleeding last night, but as he looked he saw his split lip from a couple of weeks ago had opened again.

The more he looked the faster his breathing became. He could see Neil in front of him, hear the crack his hand made when it connected with Billy’s face. Billy backed up and sat down on the edge of the bath, head between his knees, trying to slow his breathing.

“Billy?”

“Go away, Max,” he moaned.

“Billy, let me help.”

He tried to shake his head, but it hurt. He felt Max sit down beside him. She put her hand on his forearm and began gently rubbing a figure 8 with her thumb.

Suddenly, new memories were flooding through Billy. Old memories really, ones he didn’t even know he had.

His mother sitting beside him on the beach rubbing figure eights into his arm as she comforted him after a fall. She was there again, beside him in the bathroom, cleaning a scrape on his knee with her right hand and rubbing figure eights with her left. And again, at her hospital bed. He was crying and she was holding his hand moving her thumb just as Max was now.

His breathing slowed. Gradually he sat up again and looked at Max.

“I’m sorry. I’ll make sure I’m home in time next time. I’m really sorry,” a tear dripped down onto her lap.

“It’s okay,” he said and pulled her close.

“Billy. None of this is okay,” she said into his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it might seem kinda weird for Billy to have freaked out about the magnets. But trust me, if kids don't know where the next threat is coming from, everything seems like a threat. 
> 
> I hope this chapter wasn't too heavy.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Specific Warnings: internalized homophobia (Billy uses a slur), full panic attack.

Billy could feel his skin itching. It had been two days since Neil had given Billy the black eye he was now sporting. Sitting with Max had helped to quieten his restlessness. But he was still wound tight with nowhere to release the tension.

He lay in bed listening to the rest of his family move through their morning routines. The phone rang and Billy heard Neil answer in his gruff, pre-coffee voice.

A minute later his door opened and Neil barked, “get up. The pool wants you down there now. Someone on the early shift is sick or something. Get your lazy arse up, they want you there by 8.”

Billy looked at his alarm clock. “It’s only 7 now, it’s barely a 10 minute drive.”

“Ah but you won’t be driving, son. Keys are confiscated.”

“What? Why?” Billy demanded before he could stop himself.

“You questioning me?”

Billy made his face go blank.

“No, sir. I’ll get down there now.”

“Good. Don’t play your music so loud tonight and we’ll see how we go with the keys.”

Neil shut the door behind him as he left. Loud music, Billy thought. He had been playing Bowie when Neil got home last night. But he’d turned it off as soon has Neil walked through the door.

He threw on his lifeguard short and a tank top. Brushed his teeth quickly and headed out. The pool was a half hour walk. He would make it in time for 8, just.

* * *

“Hey, Billy. You made it,” Adam greeted him. As he walked into the pool.

“Sorry about the late notice. Zoe was meant to be doing the early shift but she said she had to check on her grandma. Apparently the old lady’s ringing everyone she knows to complain about rabid rats in her basement. Says she’s going to call the papers if no one listens”

“Huh,” said Billy, neutrally.

“Yep. Zoe said she had to go check on her. I mean, sounds like bullshit to me, ya know. But I’m trying to hit that this weekend.” Adam smiled at Billy as though they were sharing an inside joke. “So I let her go. I tried to call Heather, but I haven’t been able to get through to her for the las couple of days. No answer at her place at all. So I called you. You’re on till midday. Sorry, I know you hate mornings.”

“S’fine,” said Billy as he heading away from Adam towards the lockers.

He still felt keyed up. Ready to spring. Unfortunately the morning shift was always completely dull. The aqua-aerobics class was about as exciting as it got.

It wasn’t until midday that families started arriving. He had been counting on his afternoon shift today. Threatening kids with lifetime bans seemed to release some stress. But he left the pool at midday feeling as tightly wound as before.

Usually he’d pick a fight at school. Or throw a lot of elbows at Steve on the basketball court. But it was summer and he didn’t have those options.

Although, he did still have Steve. Steve who had accepted his apology and actually been nice him just two days ago.

A bus heading for Starcourt mall was just pulling up outside the pool. Billy made a split second decision to run for it. It was only when he was seated and on the move that he thought about how badly this might go.

* * *

He wandered through the mall for an hour before picking up the courage to head towards the food court.

He felt a strange buzz when he saw the big Scoops sign. He couldn’t tell if he was just anxious to see Steve or if it was a new way for his body to gear him up for a fight.

He had once overheard a social worker at the hospital tell his mom that her young boy needed to learn to name his emotions so that he could regulate them. He hadn’t understood that at the time, but right now it seemed to make a lot of sense.

Before he could figure out what this feeling was, and which way it was going to take him, his feet had carried him into the ice cream shop. He was immediately face to face with Steve, who was wiping the tables out front.

Steve looked up and his face broke into a genuine smile. Billy had seen that smile directed at others in school, but never at him.

“Hey, you’re back,” Steve said warmly.

And just like that, the tension in Billy’s body eased. The buzz became a low comforting hum and Billy smiled back.

“You know me, pretty boy, my favourite thing in the world is ice cream. Can’t keep me away.”

“Bullshit,” Steve deadpanned. “Your favourite thing in the world is pissing people off.”

Just 48 hours ago a statement like that from Steve would have been sneered at Billy coldly. But a glance at Steve’s face showed a faint smile playing around his lips and teasing eyes.

“Okay. So pissing people off first, closely followed by ice cream. And I can ‘em both from you, Princess. So of course I’m back.”

Steve blinked at Billy and then laughed. Actually laughed at something Billy had said.

We could be friends, thought Billy.

The idea popped into his mind without being invited. It had never crossed his mind before. With any other guy that he had liked in the way that he liked Steve, he always went straight for aggression. Keep his distance, make them hate him, hide his secret.

Steve had turned back, walked behind the counter and scooped a little sample of something onto a spoon. Billy walked up to the counter and Steve held it out to him.

“ _Hokey Pokey_ ,” he said.

“Excuse you?”

“It’s Hokey Pokey,” Steve repeated. “Apparently it’s this new flavour all the way from New Zealand. Wild right? I mean who even knows where New Zealand is?” he laughed.

Billy took the spoon from Steve and said, “actually, New Zealand is a small group of islands to the south east of Australia. Capital city is Wellington.”

Steve just stared at him in shock.

“Some people actually pay attention in geography, pretty boy,” Billy said with a smile, licking the sample lazily off his spoon.

He though he saw Steve’s eyes dart down to follow the movement of his tongue.

Billy shook himself. If he was going to do this friendship thing, he couldn’t let his imagination run away from him. He couldn’t start reading things into Steve’s actions just because he wished they were there.

“So, no Robin today?” Billy said to change the subject.

“Who?” said Steve, who seemed to still be focusing on Billy’s mouth.

“Robin, you know, brown hair about this long,” Billy gestured. “Works here with you, immune to flirting.”

“Immune to flirting?” asked Steve. “Hmmm, maybe you just don’t flirt good.”

“Yeah right, Harrington. You’ve seen me in action. I can get anyone I want.”

“Except Robin, apparently,” Steve smiled.

“Yeah, well…” Billy searched for an excuse, “I didn’t get a chance to dial it all the way up. Besides I’m not really interested in her anyway.”

“No? Who do you have your eyes on then?” Steve asked.

Shit. That question pulled Billy up short.

“Uh… I, well…”

Steve laughed, and taking pity on the flustered boy in front of him said, “Robin’s here. She’s just out the back with Dustin.”

“Dustin?” Billy frowned, “I thought Max said he was at nerd camp.”

“He was. At _science_ camp,” said Steve reprovingly. “But now he’s back and he and Robin are just… busy with something.”

“Busy?” Billy looked at Steve curiously and cocked his head towards the back room. He could hear a fuzzy radio recording being stopped and played and stopped again.

“Hey, stop listening,” said Steve suddenly. “You’re not supposed to be hearing that.”

“Oh really?” Billy grinned.

“Yeah really,” Steve huffed. “So you better stop listening now.”

Billy focused his attention fully on Steve, leaned forward on the counter, and looked up at him through his eyelashes.

“You want me to stop listening? Then you better distract me, pretty boy.”

Steve swayed slightly towards Billy.

“Aren’t you ever going to get tired of that nickname?” he asked.

“Not while it’s true. Come on now, how are you gonna distract me?”

Steve looked as though he was trying to process what Billy had just said, but eventually mumbled, “I guess, yeah.. I can, I just… how?”

Billy was dangerously close to simply asking Steve to come closer so that he could show him. But Steve wasn’t like him. And Billy really didn’t feel like ruining whatever kind of friendship they had just started to create.

Billy stepped back and threw himself down at one of the tables Steve had been wiping. “I don’t know, Princess. Tell me about why you’re here and not working for your daddy at the accounting firm this summer.”

Steve sighed. “You sure you wanna hear that. It’s not that interesting, man.”

“Make it interesting then. Tell me a story.”

“Okay. Fine.” Steve came around the counter and sat down in the chair next to Billy’s.

“Well, young Billy, let me tell you the tale of Steve Harrington, ‘Princess’ to some, ‘pretty boy’ others,” he winked at Billy, “and enduring disappointment to his parents.”

Billy listened as Steve told him about how ever since he could remember his dad would be gone for long chunks of time on business trips, often taking his mom with him. Steve was left with a nanny when he was younger, but from around 15 he was just left by himself.

Billy tried to reconcile his own feelings with the morose way Steve was telling the story.

Billy would have been ecstatic if Neil and Susan had fucked off for long periods of time and left him alone. Even if it meant looking after Max, he’d have preferred it. But Steve seemed to feel some sort of loss and sadness. They were so different. But then Billy thought about the way he missed his mom and it made more sense.

“So then, when I barely passed senior year, he gave me a lecture about ‘wasting all the opportunities afforded to you by my position in the community’,” said Steve in what Billy assumed was an imitation of his father’s voice.

“And he told me I had to work for a year. And then maybe, maybe, he’d pull some strings and get me an interview for college.”

Billy looked at Steve closely. He didn’t seem any happier about the idea of going to college than he did about working at Scoops.

“To study what?”

“What?” said Steve.

“Go to college to Study what?” asked Billy again.

“Business maybe, or accounting or something. Whatever.”

“Wait, so you’re working for a year in a job you don’t like just to prove something to your dad, so that you’ll be able to go to college and study something you don’t care about, and then get a job you couldn’t give less of a shit about?”

Steve stared at Billy as though he was speaking a foreign language.

“Seems fucked up to me, Steve,” Billy finished.

Inexplicably, Steve broke out into a grin at this.

“What?”

“You called me Steve.”

“No I didn’t, Princess. You’re hearing things. Too much ice cream will do that to you,” Billy bluffed.

“Nope you said it. No take-backs.”

“No take backs? What, are we in fifth grade?”

“You said, and I quote, ‘seems pretty fucked up to me, Steve’,” Steve smiled happily at Billy, their knees knocking against each other under the table.

“I’m trying to give you life advice,” Billy whined. “And the only thing you focus on is me calling you Steve?”

“Aha! So you admit”

“Yeah, pretty boy, I admit it. Now go get me more of that New Zealand ice cream”

Steve bounded up from the table and Billy watched him go with a smile on his face.

* * *

“I’d better head off,” Billy sighed around 4pm.

“What? No,” Steve pouted. “I’m on for another half hour. At least keep me company till then.”

“Can’t, Princess. Curfew.”

“A 4.30 curfew?” Steve questioned.

“Well 5, but yeah.”

“But it only takes like 10 minutes to drive back to your place.”

“Ah, I’m not driving. Walking.”

“Did something happen to the Camaro?” Steve asked.

“Nah, I just love the exercise,” Billy joked half-heartedly.

Steve just looked at him until Billy said, “I got my keys confiscated.”

“What for?”

“Playing music to loud or something,” Billy said with a forced smile.

“That’s all?” asked Steve.

Billy shrugged.

“Well, I’ll drive you,” Steve said simply. “I have my car here. You can stay here until I finish and I’ll drive you home.”

Billy looked a Steve’s hopeful expression and found himself saying, “how could I turn down a ride in the infamous Steve Harrington Beemer?”

Steve smiled at him, “I’ll just clean up a bit and we can go.”

“I’ll just be waiting here, Stevie.”

* * *

In the time that it took Steve to finish wiping the tables, clean the counter, and pack up his things, Billy had started to freak himself out. What if someone saw him getting in Steve’s car and it got back to his dad? Or if his dad had got home early and saw Steve drop him off?

“Ready?” Steve smiled at him. “My car is this way.”

He thought about making up some excuse to ditch, but it was already too late. The only way he’d get home before curfew was if Steve drove him.

He followed Steve to the carpark, relieved to find it pretty quiet. No one to see him get in the car, at least.

Oblivious to Billy’s internal dilemma, Steve drove them out of the parking building and onto the main road back into town. He pushed a tape into the deck and Billy immediately recognised the tune.

“Bowie, Harringon? Really?”

“Got a problem with my music, Hargrove?” Steve said good-naturedly.

Billy raised his eyebrows. Steve looked over and frowned. “What? I like Bowie.”

“Bit faggy if you ask me,” Billy said, remembering Neil’s malicious smile this morning as he told Billy the Camaro was confiscated for playing the _very_ song Steve had just put on.

Steve’s face hardened at once.

“Well it’s a good thing no one was asking you,” Steve said before turning up the music up.

♪ _you’ve got your mother in a whirl_

_She’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl_

_Hey babe, your hair’s alright_

_Hey babe, let’s go out tonight_

_You like me, and I like it all…_ ♪

They sat in silence while the music played until Steve said coldy, “I thought you people from California were meant to be more _progressive_.”

Billy felt like absolute shit. It wasn’t meant to go this way. He was risking it all just to be in the car with Steve and now Steve didn’t even want him here.

“Only some of us are, I guess. Progressive, I mean,” he said dully.

“Guess I should have known, with the way you treated Lucas when you first arrived.”

“No that was… I wasn’t being… well, no I was… But you don’t understand.”

“Try me,” said Steve resolutely.

“Neil, my dad, he’s not real fond of people like Lucas.”

“People like Lucas,” Steve mimicked with a humourless laugh. “You mean black people?”

“Yeah. Black people”

“And what? You just thought you’d do daddy’s work for him?”

“No I… it’s not like that. I just thought that if I scared him off, I might be able to protect Max.”

“From Lucas? He’s harmless. Max doesn’t need protecting.”

Steve wasn’t getting it.

Billy wanted to make sure he understood. He could feel himself getting hot and his heart racing. But this was important. He tried as hard as he could to keep calm.

“Not protection from Lucas. Protection from Neil. From my dad.”

Something in his tone must have caught Steve’s attention, because he turned to look at Billy.

“He’d… he’d hurt her if he knew?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Didn’t want to find out.”

Billy stared straight ahead so he wouldn’t have to look at Steve.

“Billy?”

Billy said nothing.

“Billy, those bruises on your neck. Your eye…”

Billy hugged his chest and stayed silent.

“Billy, those bruises. He hurts you?”

Billy made his face go blank.

“It’s nothing I can’t handle, Harrington.”

Steve said nothing as last lines of the song rang out.

♪ _Calamity’s child_

_Where do you wanna go?_

_What can I do for you?_

_Looks like you’ve been there too_

_‘Cause you’ve torn your dress_

_And your face is a mess_

_Oh, your face is a mess_

_Oh, so how could they know?_ ♪

“Why?” Steve asked in the silence between tracks.

Billy actually laughed.

“You think he needs a reason,” he said turning to Steve, eyes wide and hysterical.

“Take your fucking pick Stevie. I’m late home. Or I forget to do the dishes. I’m disrespectful. I get a bad grade. I get a _good_ grade in a subject he doesn’t like. I talk back. I play fucking Bowie on my own fucking record player. I just fucking exist some days and that’s enough.” 

He was yelling now. Yelling at Steve Harrington about his dad. He could feel his heart pounding, vision narrowing. He heard his own staccato breathing as though from far away.

“Pull over, pull the fuck over,” he gasped.

Steve spun the wheel and did as he was told, coming to a halt on the side of the road and turning the engine off.

Billy tried to calm himself. Deep breaths, counting. It wasn’t working. He couldn’t breathe. He was going to die on the side of the road with Steve Harrington.

And then Steve was at his side, opening the passenger door, turning Billy so that his legs were out and on the ground. Steve was front of him, couching down with his hands on Billy’s knees.

“Billy, look at me. Just focus on me. Don’t worry about anything else. You’re here with me. You’re safe. Just try to match my breathing.”

Billy looked at him. Brown eyes. Brown eyes with tiny flecks of green and gold were looking into his. And shaky breath after shaky breath he tried to match Steve.

* * *

Billy had no concept of what time it was. No idea how long it had taken him to calm down. He looked down now with clear eyes at Steve, who was still crouched at the side of the road with his hands on Billy’s knees.

“Okay?” Steve questioned.

“Okay,” Billy breathed.

“Sorry,” he added before Steve could say anything more.

“Don’t. It’s okay. I get them too sometimes. More right after all the stuff last year… but even now sometimes”

Billy looked at him questioningly, but Steve shook his head and Billy let it drop.

Steve stood up and walked back around to get in the driver’s side. Billy swung his legs back into the car and pulled the door closed.

“What’s the time?” he asked Steve.

“About 6,” Steve answered.

Billy tilted his head back against the headrest, closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

“That’s not good. He won’t be happy about this.”

Billy felt and hand on his thigh and opened his eyes to see Steve leaning towards him over the gearstick.

“So don’t go back tonight,” he said simply.

“What do you mean?”

“Come stay at mine.”

“Your parents?”

Steve rolled his eyes.

“In Europe somewhere,” he said.

“He’s going to tear into me no matter when I go back though.”

“So put it off of for a night. It’ll give us time to think up some excuse for him.”

The logic sounded off to Billy. A beating was a beating whenever you got it, and Neil wasn’t one for excuses. But Steve was still looking at him with those earnest eyes, like he really believed that they could figure this out. Billy couldn’t say no to him. He simply nodded.

Steve started up the car and pulled away.

As they passed the usual turn off to Billy’s house Steve took a hand off the wheel and placed it back on Billy’s thigh. Billy looked at it for a minute before placing his own hand on top of Steve’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm not always the biggest fan of song lyrics being included in a fic... but I just really though the song went with the scene so... hope you didn't mind it.  
> (I'm sure you already know, but it's Rebel Rebel by Bowie).


	5. Chapter 5

They pulled up to Steve’s house and Billy got out of the car and followed Steve up to the front door.

Billy had been in houses like this. The guys on the basketball team threw big parties when their parents were away and their houses were always the same. Two stories, TVs with VCR players, pools, and more bathrooms than there were people. But Billy had never been to Steve’s house.

Steve let them in the front door and flicked on the lights. They stood awkwardly in the entrance hall until Steve said, “you wanna beer?”

“Though you’d never ask,” Billy grinned. “Lead the way, pretty boy.”

Steve rolled his eyes at the nickname but lead the way down the corridor through a large living room complete with a family portrait that must have been a couple of years old now. Steve was standing with his parents either side of him wearing a forced hollow smile.

“Nice photo,” Billy said.

“Oh. Yeah, that was my 16th birthday,” Steve said. Walking straight past where it hung on the wall, through the next door and into the kitchen. Billy followed.

“They made you dress up and pose like that for your 16th?”

“They didn’t know,” said Steve dully.

“What do you mean, they didn’t know?”

“Well, I mean, I guess they do know when my birthday is. But mostly they just forget when it actually rolls around. They left for a two week holiday in Spain a few hours after that photo was taken. But a courier came with a Walkman a couple of days later and a note saying they were sorry for forgetting. No one else in school had one back then. So I guess that was pretty cool,” Steve sighed.

Billy didn’t know what to say to that. He’d never been good at comforting people, so he tried for a change of subject.

“Jesus, Harrington, you’re bumming me out. Gimme that beer and let’s watch something. Saw a VCR back there. What videos you got?”

Steve shook himself, popped the top off a beer, handed it to Billy and said, “how do you feel about The Blues Brothers?”

“Usually more of a hard rock man myself, but for you Stevie? Sure, let’s watch The Blues Brothers.”

Billy spread himself out on the couch and watched as Steve fiddled around with tape. With Steve’s back to him, Billy allowed his eyes to wander from Steve’s neck across his shoulders and down to a small patch of skin on his lower back where Steve’s t-shirt had ridden up.

Billy looked back up to see Steve’s eyes on him questioningly.

“Come on Harrington, don’t keep me waiting,” Billy said with bravado.

Steve pressed play and threw himself down on the couch next to Billy.

Just as Jake and Elwood were reunited on the screen, Steve leaned over and said, “Steve.”

Billy looked at him, confused.

“Uh, I’m Billy,” he said, pointing to himself. “You getting confused in your old age? Told you all that ice cream would mess with you.”

Steve smiled and looked back at the movie.

“No. I mean, I like it when you call me Steve. No more Harrington.”

Billy looked at him, his profile illuminated by the light from the screen.

“Well okay then, _Steve_ ,” Billy said with emphasis. He thought for another minute.

“What about Princess? Pretty boy?”

Steve was silent for a while, a blush creeping onto his cheeks.

“Maybe those are okay too,” he said. He shifted to lean his head on the back of the couch, almost on Billy’s shoulder.

“You got it, pretty boy,” Billy said.

* * *

They woke a few hours later to a dark house and a rainbow striped screen in front of them.

Steve’s head was resting fully on Billy’s shoulder now and he’d moved closer to curl up against Billy’s side.

“We should probably go to bed,” Steve said groggily.

“Donna wanna move,” Billy sighed.

“We have to at least lie down or else my neck’s going to kill me in the morning”

Billy grunted in agreement. Steve flicked the TV off and they shifted down the couch stretching out their legs below them.

Billy was lying on his back, which didn’t give Steve a lot of room. He didn’t seem to mind though as he lay on his side and curled himself around Billy again.

* * *

They woke again with sunlight pouring in through the open curtain. Billy didn’t have chance to savour the feeling of Steve snuggled around him or freak out about hiding the slight bulge that was evident in his jeans, before Steve was leaping up and yelling, “shit. What time is it?”

Billy blinked up at him, smiling lazily at the messy bed-hair on display. He must be one of the only people in Hawkins who’d seen Steve without his perfectly coiffed hair.

“Shit. Fuck. I’m meant to be at the mall in 10 minutes. Are you working today?” Steve asked.

“Ah yeah, I start at midday,” Billy said, still watching Steve from the couch.

“Okay, well I can drive you now if you want? You’ll be a bit early. But better than walking in this heat, right? And I’ll pick you up after too. And maybe you can stay here again?”

Billy felt like a bucket of ice cold water had been tipped over him.

How could he have forgotten that he would have to face Neil tonight? Staying at Steve’s had been a stupid decision, much better to have been a couple of hours late yesterday than to have stayed out the whole night. He was in for it now.

Steve was still looking at him for an answer. Billy just nodded. He’d let Steve give him a ride this morning, but there was no way he was staying here again tonight. He had to go home and face Neil.

But Billy knew if he told Steve this, Steve would just try to persuade him away from the decision. So he let Steve believe that he’d be waiting at the pool for him at the end of his shift, and smiled tightly as Steve waved him goodbye with a cheerful, “see you tonight.”

* * *

Billy felt like a zombie for his entire shift. It must have shown because even Adam commented that Billy seemed out of sorts.

“Haven’t heard that whistle once today, Hargrove. You’re not getting sick are ya?” he joked.

When Billy didn’t answer, Adam continued on in a more serious tone.

“For real though, I really can’t have you getting sick. Heather’s still AWOL and Zoe hasn’t answered any calls since I let her off that shift to visit her grandmother. So you’re my right hand man now Billy.”

Billy just grunted, barely listening to a word Adam was saying.

As closing time rolled around Billy shut the place up as quickly as possible and was relieved to find the carpark empty as he left. If Steve was late, that meant he didn’t even have to try to sneak by him.

He jogged all the way home, and let himself quietly in the front door. Neil and Susan were watching TV in the living room.

“I’m… I’m home,” Billy said quietly. Preparing himself for the explosion he knew was coming.

Neil looked around at Billy then threw him something small. Billy caught it and looked down to find the keys to his Camaro.

“Billy we were hoping you’d pick up Max,” Susan said gently. “She’s at Chief Hopper’s house. He called to say he’s going out tonight so Max and that little girl, El, are coming back here for a sleepover.”

Billy nodded and turned to head out the door. He breathed a sigh of confused relief. But a few steps out of the house Billy heard the door open again as Neil followed him out.

“Don’t think for second that you’ll be getting away with it,” he growled. “Staying out all night. You out with another one of _your lot_ again?”

Billy said nothing.

“Well, you’re lucky we’re having company tonight. The second that the little weirdo kid leaves, I’ll be teaching you a lesson. You understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Billy said blankly.

“A lesson you know you deserve,” Neil spat.

“Yes, sir,” Billy said again.

“Good, now go pick your sister up.”

Billy turned and walked numbly towards the Camaro. He had let himself hope for a few short seconds that nothing was going to happen, and somehow that dashed hope made him feel worse.

He drove to Hopper’s house in a daze. Barely registering the streets as they passed. He knocked on the front door and Max answered.

“Oh hey,” she said, “are you here to take us home?”

Billy nodded.

“Okay well, El’s just packing a bag. She’ll just be a sec.”

Even in his numbness Billy noticed a shakiness to her voice. He snapped back to attention and looked at her. Her brow was wrinkled and she was worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, looking back at the door to El’s room.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she said, too quickly.

“Nothing? Really? You look pretty freaked out to me”

“Well I’m not,” she said defiantly.

“Yes, you are.”

“How would you know?”

“Cause. You look the same as you did back when you broke that skateboard only, like, a day after Neil bought it for you,” Billy said.

“Whatever, like you were paying attention to that,” Max said dismissively.

“Yeah? Who do you think left a brand new board on your bed so you wouldn’t get in trouble?”

Max looked at him in confusion.

“I thought… I thought mom…”

“Yeah, Susan didn’t do shit,” Billy said with a sneer.

“You did that? You bought me a new board? But I wasn’t even talking to you then.”

Billy was uncomfortable now. He hadn’t meant to tell her that, it had just come out.

“Yeah, well. You were freaking out, so I just… you know. Anyway that’s not the point. Point is you were freaking out then, and you’re freaking out now. What’s up?”

Max studied him closely then. Making up her mind, she said, “me and El were walking through town today and we saw that guy from the newspaper, you know the Hawkins Post guy?”

Billy nodded. He had no idea who she meant, but he didn’t want to interrupt her now that she’d started talking.

“Well we saw him and was just acting real… real weird,” she finished.

“Weird how?” Billy asked.

“I dunno. Just weird. Anyway, El has this thing where she can…” Max hesitated again.

Billy nodded in what he hoped was an encouraging way, shit he was bad at this. But Max seem to take it as a sign to go on.

“She has this thing where she can, like, concentrate real hard on someone and get these… these dreams or vision, I guess, of what they’re up to.”

Billy raised his eyebrows. This seemed pretty farfetched. He wondered if Max was playing some kind of joke on him. But she did look genuinely freaked. So Billy just nodded again.

“Anyway. So we came back here and we thought, maybe El could check on the Hawkins Post guy. And I dunno. I don’t really understand what she was saying. But it sounded like he was in trouble. And not just him other people too. Those lifeguards you work with.”

“Zoe and Heather?” Billy asked.

“Yeah. I think so. El reckons _things_ might be starting again.”

She said _things_ with a particular emphasis that made Billy feel as though he was missing something. The same way he had felt when Steve had talked about the _things_ that had happened last year.

Before he could think about it any further El came out of her room with a packed bag.

Neither of the girls said anything as Billy drove them back home. Whether or not this vision thing was real, Billy could tell they were both freaked out.

Billy himself was so lost in thought that he almost missed Steve’s Beemer parked just a block away from his house. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw Steve sitting in the front seat watching him drive by.

When they pulled up at home, Billy let the girls out of his car and said to Max, “tell them I’m just going to buy cigarettes, okay?”

Max nodded and led El into the house. Billy turned and walked back a block to Steve’s car. He was right, Steve was sitting in the front seat. He was talking into what looked like a walkie-talkie, but stopped and rolled down the window as Billy approached.

“Hey, Billy I --,” he began.

“You can’t be here, Harrington,” Billy said coldly.

Steve’s smile faulted a little but he carried on.

“I’m really sorry I was late to pick you up. Some crazy shit went down at the mall today. I have to get back there actually. Dustin and Robin cracked this code, well more Robin than Dustin really but… it’s these boxes in a store room… and we have the blueprints to get there, but Dustin was too big for the vent… So we fed Erika a ton of ice cream just to convince her to do it. She’ll be halfway to the store room now actually, so I really do have to get back. But I just had to come and check… where were you? You said you’d wait for me when your shift finished.”

“I--,” Billy started. He was interrupted by Erika’s voice on the walkie-talkie.

“And that’s how it’s done, losers,” she said.

“You got in?” Steve said back into the machine.

“Come back and see for yourself, Steve.” Billy recognised that Dustin’s voice.

“On my way,” Steve said starting up the car, “you coming?” he said to Billy as though it was the most normal thing in the world for Billy to leave his house without Neil’s permission and drive to the scene of what sounded like a break-in spearheaded by a nine year old.

Billy couldn’t understand it himself, but somehow his feet were carrying him around to the passenger side and he was opening the door and sliding in.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Steve grinned and headed for the mall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where we start getting into the real plot of season 3. Obviously I've changed a pretty major plot point for Billy. I did my best to make the major events match up, but the timeline might not map perfectly to the actual show. 
> 
> I feel like I should also say that you REALLY have to have seen season 3 for the rest of this fic to make any sense because I won't be following any of the other character's story lines unless they intersect with Billy's. I'm sure you've all worked that out by now, but just in case!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Specific Warnings: discussion of Neil's abuse.

“Looks like some kind of bioluminescent plasma,” Billy said.

He was standing with Steve, Robin, Dustin and Erika in one of the loading docks around the back of the mall. They were all looking at him as though he’d grown an extra head.

“What? Sometimes I pay attention in biology… it can be interesting,” he shrugged.

“Nerd,” Erika said.

Steve was looking at him strangely, as though noticing something about him for the first time.

“Steve, why is this guy even here?” Dustin said.

“Don’t worry about it, man,” Steve said.

“Don’t worry about it? Don’t worry about it?” Dustin’s voice rose to a high pitch squeak.

“We standing here surrounded by super secret Russian shit that could potentially endanger the lives of everyone we know in Hawkins, maybe even everyone in God damn America, and you brought along this psycho!”

Dustin’s brain seemed to catch up to the fact that the person he’d just called a psycho was standing two feet from him. Billy widened his eyes and gave him a manic grin. Dustin jumped behind Robin.

“You’re all nerds and psychos,” Erika interrupted. “Just let me out of here, I’m going home.”

Dustin, with his eyes still warily on Billy, walked over to the control panel and pushed a button. When nothing happened he began mashing the others.

Suddenly, with a jolt that knocked them of their feet, the whole loading bay stated to move.

“Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh no. Oh shit, shit, shit,” yelled Dustin. “It’s a fucking elevator.”

They were descending at speed now, Dustin still mashing buttons frantically as they went. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the elevator stopped.

“What. Did. You. Do?” Erika said to Dustin. She had that don’t-mess-with-me voice that reminded Billy strongly of her mother.

“Hey I was just trying to let you out. This is not my fault.” He turned away from her and began mashing buttons again. “Go up, you piece of shit. Go up.”

“Yeah, ‘cause hitting all the buttons worked so well for you last time,” Erika said.

* * *

Four hours later nothing had changed. Dustin had given up on the buttons and was now slumped against the boxes in the corner, snoring lightly. Robin and Erika had curled up in another corner. They too, looked to be asleep.

Billy had spent the last hour in silence thinking about how he would explain this to Neil.

The scenario seemed to get darkly funnier and funnier in his mind as he imagined Neil reacting to a story about Russian codes and secret underground bunkers.

He huffed a laugh to himself as he imagined the look on Neil’s face.

“What’s funny?” Steve asked.

Billy looked up at Steve sitting across from him.

“Nothing, pretty boy.”

Steve let it drop but tilted his head to observe Billy.

“What?” Billy asked.

“You’re kinda smart, huh?”

Billy shrugged.

“Last year Miranda Lovell told me you got an A on an English paper. I thought she was bullshitting at the time. But you did, didn’t you? And you knew that stuff about New Zealand, and about this bio-aluminum thing,” Steve continued.

“Bioluminescence,” Billy corrected.

“Yeah that. How do you know that stuff?”

Billy shrugged again.

“Sometimes I pay attention in class, or read stuff. You know, when I’m in the mood to.”

“In the mood?”

“Yeah, I…” he hesitated. “You know how I told you about feeling keyed up?”

Billy waited for Steve to nod.

“Well, I don’t concentrate real good when I’m like that. And I’m like that a lot of the time, so…”

Steve gazed at Billy.

“You mean he hurts you a lot of the time?” he asked.

Billy looked up at Steve sharply and then over to where the others were sleeping.

“Don’t just say shit like that, Harrington. I don’t need everyone knowing my business.”

“Okay, okay. Sorry.”

They sat in silence for a long time after that. Billy hadn’t meant to shut down the conversation entirely – he just knew he didn’t want to talk about his dad.

He was searching around for a new topic when Steve broke the silence.

“So, why did it take you so long to apologise to me?”

Billy sighed. This was also a conversation he was warry about. He tried to brush it off. “Hey, I got there eventually didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but Lucas said you went over and apologised to him only a couple of weeks after that night. Max said she didn’t talk to you for a month after. But when she did, you were nicer. And you’ve been giving them all rides to the arcade this summer, you know, when I’ve been working. So, how come it took you so long to be nice to _me_?”

“No way, pretty boy,” Billy tried to joke. “I’m not just letting you in my head without getting some info in return.”

Steve looked at him, considering.

“Sounds fair,” he said reasonably. “We’ll take turns.”

“Turns?” Billy asked.

“Yeah, you ask me a question, and then I get to ask you one. You first. What’s your question?” 

“Easy. What the fuck is this place?” said Billy.

“We don’t exactly know,” said Steve slowly. “It’s a long story. Basically Dustin overheard some Russian code on some big radio thing he built at nerd camp”

“ _Science_ camp,” Billy corrected with a grin.

“Yeah, at Science camp,” Steve agreed. “And then Robin cracked the code. She amazing actually, speak four languages,” Steve said in awe.

Billy pushed down the jealousy that rose in his chest at Steve’s words. Just because Steve had been nice, let Billy stay at his place, fell asleep next to him…

Billy wasn’t stupid, Steve was obviously comfortable with him. And he had been angry with Billy when he’d said ‘fag.’ But that didn’t mean Steve felt the same way Billy did. And the way he talked about Robin…

Billy was pretty sure Robin wouldn’t return Steve’s feelings, but he was yet to confirm his suspicions, and it still kinda hurt to think that Steve might like her in that way.

“—so then we decided to use the air vents to break into the storage room and see what they were hiding. And, well, you were here for the rest. We had no idea it was an elevator. But I guess this must be some kind of secret base,” Steve finished.

“Right,” said Billy slowly, still thinking about Steve and Robin.

“Yeah. So my turn?”

“Huh?”

“My turn to ask you a question,” said Steve.

Billy shrugged.

“Would you want to go to college?”

Billy stared at Steve, surprised. That had come out of nowhere. Billy had been expecting Steve to ask again about the apology, or his dad.

“Umm…”

“Say if you were able to… I mean, if you didn’t feel keyed up so often. If you could concentrate in class and get good grades. Would you want to go?”

“Honestly, anything that gets me out of Hawkins sounds pretty good to me,” Billy said.

“That’s not really an answer,” pressed Steve. “If college could be the thing that gets you out, would you want it?”

“I’ve never really thought too much about it,” Billy said honestly. “I try not to let myself think about impossible shit like that. But I guess maybe… I mean, I like physics and playing around with electronics.”

“So maybe engineering?” Steve suggested.

“Yeah. Maybe…”

“Where would you want to go to school? Back in California?” Steve asked.

“Nice try, pretty boy. But that’s another question. My turn,” Billy said.

Steve smiled and gestured for Billy to go ahead.

Billy thought for a minute and then said, “that girl, El. Max said something about visions. She got something to do with all of this?”

Steve chucked under his breath.

“Yeah you could say that. I don’t fully get it, but it seems like our government kidnapped a bunch of children to run experiments on, and El was one of those kids. I don’t know what they did, but now she has powers. Like actual comic-book-super-hero-style powers. She can move stuff with her mind and see these visions.

Anyway, she opened this interdimensional portal. Only by accident, but still, a bunch of monsters came though and almost destroyed everything, but then there was a battle and she closed it all back up. And… yeah,” Steve finished lamely.

Billy burst out laughing, only to be shushed quickly by Steve.

“You’ll wake them up,” he said looking over at the sleeping Robin.

“That is some grade A bullshit, Stevie,” Billy said in a whisper. “Super powers, ha!”

“Yeah. Well. It happened. That’s what we were all doing the night you beat me up actually. Trying to save the world”

That memory sobered Billy up immediately and Steve continued.

“Anyway, I don’t really know how it’s all connected. But it’s too much to be a coincidence, right? Although, I dunno. It has been pretty normal around here up until this thing with the Russians.”

“I dunno about that…” said Billy slowly. “What about the rats?” 

“Rats?” said Steve in confusion.

Billy racked his brain, trying to remember exactly what Adam had said.

“Apparently there were rabid rats in some lady’s basement and she was acting all weird. And her and her granddaughter, Zoe who works at the pool, are kinda missing. And…” he tried to remember what Max had told him.

“Max said El had one of those vision things where Heather and Zoe were in trouble. She said El reckons _things_ might be happening again.”

“Well shit,” said Steve.

They sat without speaking for a while, taking everything in.

“I guess we can’t do anything to help until we get out of here anyway,” Steve said eventually. “So my turn to ask right?

“You said you’re keyed up a lot of the time,” he began cautiously. He glanced over at the other to check that they were all still asleep.

“So, he does do it often, right? When did it start?” he asked.

Billy sighed and looked own at his hands. His eyes flicked over to the others, all still peacefully asleep, before looking back up at Steve.

“When my mom was sick. I mean, Neil and me were never that close before then, but when my mom got sick he started saying shit to me. Like it was my fault, or he wished it was me in the hospital.”

Steve scowled but didn’t interrupt. Billy was grateful, now he’d started talking he didn’t want to stop.

“I could sort of cope with all that, because I still had mom then. I would visit her and she would read me stories and even if things were bad with Neil, I knew she was still there. It was when she died that things really started. Just little things at first, you know. Holding my arm too tight, or giving me a shove as a walked by.

As I grew up, it got worse. He used to be careful though. Keep the bruises on my chest, or back, or legs. Places I could cover easily. That changed though. When he caught me… he caught me with…” Billy paused.

“Caught you with…” Steve prompted.

But Billy was looking at him anymore. He was listening. He could hear a faint whirring noise and voices. He could her voices too.

“I think we have company,” he said quietly.

“Shit,” said Steve. “Dustin, Robin, Erika. Wake up.”

Steve looked at Billy with panicked eyes.

“What do we do?” he whispered.

Billy looked around the room.

“There,” he pointed at the ceiling, “I bet those squares lift up. We hide up there.”

Between them Steve and Billy managed to lift Dustin, Erika and Robin up through the hole. Billy clasped his hands in a stirrup for Steve.

“You first, pretty boy. I’ll boost you.”

“I’m not leaving you down here,” Steve said.

“Out of the two of us, who has the best chance of pulling themselves up,” Billy hissed. “When was the last time you hit the gym, Stevie?”

Steve bit his lip. “Fine. We’ll do it your way. Just hurry up.”

Billy boosted Steve up and watched as his legs disappeared up into the darkness. Then he crouched, legs tensed, and sprung upward. His hands grasped the edge of hole and he began to pull himself up. As soon as he’d pulled his legs through Robin was replacing the tile.

The five of them sat still and quiet as two armed soldiers opened the door and packed the boxes on to a kart. They were speaking to each other in Russian. One of them seemed to be gesturing at the room as though he’d noticed something weird and was looking for confirmation from his comrade.

Above them, Billy and the others held their breath. But the other soldier seemed to wave him off and the moment passed. The climbed back into their kart and drove off down a long hallway.

The door started to close behind them. Billy dropped back down and sprinted for it, the others in his wake. Steve was the last one through with an inelegant sort of a dive role.

“Nice,” Billy snorted. “I hear they’re looking for a new James Bond now that Roger Moore’s retired. Something to think about if Scoops doesn’t work out,” he teased.

“Now really isn’t the time for your flirting,” snapped Robin.

“I wasn’t…” “He wasn’t…” Billy and Steve said at the same time as Dustin said, “gross.”

“Whatever,” she said. “Let’s go.”

They followed her off down a long corridor in the same direction the kart had gone.

Dustin fell into step beside Steve and glared at Billy before saying, “what do you think, Steve? This connected to the _other stuff_ from _last year_?” he raised his eyebrows significantly.

Billy rolled his eyes. The kid could not have been less subtle if he tried, so before Steve could answer Billy said, “yeah, maybe. We’ve been thinking that there must be some link between the work that the American government was doing on El and the other kids and what the Russian government is up to now. Maybe it even has something to do with the interdimensional monsters, you know how these things go,” he said sagely.

Billy didn’t have clue what he was saying. He hadn’t really followed all of Steve’s explanation. And the bits he had followed, he wasn’t sure if he believed. But it was worth it just to see the look on Dustin’s face.

Dustin turned his glare on Steve.

“You told him,” he hissed. “You actually told him about El and the Demogorgon? Un-fucking-believable Steve. I’m at Science camp for 4 weeks and you’re practically shacked up with Billy-the fucking psychopath-Hargrove. Ah, no offence,” he added to Billy as an afterthought.

“None taken, little nerd,” Billy

“Dude, chill,” Steve began. “ We’re not ‘shacked up.’ Were just friends and—,”

“Shhhhhhhhh”

Ahead of them Robin was crouched by a door way, waving frantically for them to shut up.

They crept up and crouched behind her, each taking it in turns to peek around the corner.

Billy thought it looked like they’d reached some kind of a hub. Soldiers everywhere, boxes of the plasma tubes being loaded and unloaded, doors leading off to other corridors and rooms. Behind him her could hear the others bickering quietly about what to do.

“You already know I’m not about to walk into a room full of commies,” he heard Erika saying.

As Billy watched, a new kart full of boxes arrived from one of the other corridors. The soldiers seemed focused on unloading it.

“Now,” Billy hissed back at the others. “Stay low and follow me.”

He made a run for it, hoping the others were behind him. He wrenched open a door on the far side of the room and they all tumbled through, pulling the door closed as they went.

Billy had about a second to feel relief that they had all made it, before he looked up just in time to see a fist flying towards his face. His world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if everyone else likes the idea of smart Billy as much as I do - but I loved writing him that way, so that's what you're getting.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those Russians have good tranquilizers...

The first thing Billy noticed when he started to come to were the ropes around his arms and torso. He could feel two other people pressed firmly against his back.

He felt odd. Spacey. High almost. He made as if to get up, but found he couldn’t move more than an inch in any direction.

“Ohhhhhh,” said a breathy sing-song voice from his right.

“Ohhhh, Billy’s back. Ha. I’m soooo glad you didn’t die Billy-bo. I was so worried, wasn’t I?”

“Yep. Soooo worried,” said a girls voice from his left.

“Steeve? Robiiin?” Billy asked. He was surprised to hear his voice slur like theirs.

“Heeey. Those are _our_ names,” said Robin and she and Steve dissolved into giggles.

Billy couldn’t help laughing along too. He couldn’t exactly remember what was funny, but something must be.

“You should have seeeen him, Billy,” giggled Robin. “That soldier knocked you out and Steve just went all slap-pow-kaboom and knocked him out right back”

“Kaboom,” echoed Steve with another giggle.

“We almost got away, but then we didn’t. And now they’ve got us. Oops,” she giggled. “And they gave us all a fun injection. Oops again, hah! And now Steve’s all beaten up for not answering questions.”

“Oops again, again,” Steve added softly.

That registered with Billy, even through the haze in his head.

“They beat you up, Steeevie? Youu okay?” he asked.

“Fine. Fine. Fine. Honeybunchkin,” Steve sang happily.

The door burst open before Billy could ask anything else. He was facing the wall, but he heard heavy footfalls as several people entered the room. He wanted to twist to get a look at what they were dealing with, but there was no need. A second later a stern looking soldier appeared in front of Billy.

“Ohh, hellooo old friend,” Robin smiled.

“Quiet.” The soldier spoke with a thick Russian accent.

“We’re here to talk to this one, now that he’s awake.” He poked Billy hard in the chest. “Why are you here?” he demanded.

Billy tried to remember where exactly ‘here’ was. The last thing he could place in his memory was being at the mall with Steve. Steve his pretty boy.

“I just come to see the pretty one. I didn’t build this secret underground place, I promise. It wasn’t me. I just come to see the pretty one, pretty one, pretty one…” Billy trailed off in song.

“What are you saying? The pretty one?” questioned the solider.

“Yeah. Makes me feel so good. So good. So nice. So pretty. I try to flirt but,” Billy giggled, “maybe I don’t flirt good…” Billy knew somehow that he’d gotten of topic. He tried to remember what the solider had asked him, but nothing came to him.

He was saved the trouble of saying anything further when the door banged open a second time.

Suddenly there was a lot of yelling and something that sounded like a cattle prod. Billy shut his eyes against the noise and opened them to find Dustin hurriedly untying him.

“You better be nice to me after this, arsehole,” Dustin said. 

* * *

Billy wasn’t sure where they were going. Ahead of him Dustin and Erika had taken the lead. Steve and Robin were stumbling along together giggling and shushing each other as they went. Billy was stumbling along behind.

He couldn’t quite pull all his thoughts together. Someone had built a secret bunker under the mall. And those soldiers had seemed really pissed off about it. Well, it would be pretty annoying Billy reasoned, to suddenly discover a hidden bunker where there wasn’t meant to be one.

But that didn’t seem right. Those soldiers had seemed like they were they pissed off about something else…

He followed the others totally lost in thought until he was pushed into a dark room with a huge screen. A movie theatre, he suddenly realised.

He turned around to tell Dustin the news, but was shoved into a chair and told to shut up and watch.

Billy did as he was told and turned his attention to the screen. Something was happening to a car it seemed like. Hey, Steve Harrington drove a car. Just as he thought about Steve, he felt someone lean over and whisper in his ear.

“You want some popcorn?” Their breath tickled his neck and Billy looked over to see Steve himself offering his box of popcorn to him.

“Thanks,” Billy breathed shoving a handful into his mouth. He tried to remember if he had somehow asked Steve on a date without remembering. He didn’t think so.

Steve seemed to be having similar thoughts. “That interrogation was wild shit, man. But this is kinda fun. Like a date.” He had leaned in towards Billy to whisper this and was now breathing on Billy’s neck again. 

Billy shivered and turned to face Steve, their noses just inches apart.

“Hmm,” Billy mused. “Dating pretty boys doesn’t work out so well for me, Stevie.”

He looked at looked into Steve’s eye’s and saw and open curiosity directed towards him. Steve moved closer and leaned his forehead on Billy’s. Billy could smell the popcorn on his breath.

“Maybe we could change that,” Steve breathed.

Before Billy could think of a reply, Steve had closed the gap and pressed his lips to Billy’s.

The kiss was kind of a mess. Neither Steve nor Billy seemed to be able to hold themselves upright, Billy’s mouth was still half full of popcorn and Steve kept giggling. But somewhere, Billy’s brain was singing. Steve Harrington was kissing him.

They broke apart smiling stupidly at each other. Billy almost leaned in again, but he felt someone grip his hand. He looked around to see Robin’s face, pale and sweaty.

“I don’t feel so good,” she said and ran for the door.

Billy looked back around at Steve to find a similarly pale and sweaty face. You don’t look so good either, Billy wanted to say. But as soon as he opened his mouth he shut it again. He was going to be sick. He needed to get to the bathrooms now.

Billy ran after Robin, up the stairs, out of the theatre, with Steve following closely behind.

He crashed through the bathroom door. Robin was in the first stall, hunched over the toilet. He threw himself into the second stall and heard Steve rush into the third.

Billy had never been so thankful to see a toilet in his life. 

* * *

Twenty minutes later, as he was wiping the last of the vomit from his face, he looked over to find Steve sliding himself under the cubical wall.

“Hey,” Billy said. He was happy to hear the slur had almost disappeared from his voice.

“Hey,” said Steve. He was looking down at his hands.

“Sorry about in the theatre. I know you’re not… It just seemed like maybe… But anyway, sorry about that.”

Billy’s heart sank. Steve was sorry that they had kissed.

But wait, what had Steve been about to say? He’s knows Billy’s not what?

Billy was pretty sure he knew where Steve had been going with that. And if he was right, then Billy needed to say something. But before he could open his mouth Steve had continued.

“But hey, maybe now’s your chance. She’s just through that wall,” he said pointing at the stall occupied by Robin.

“What?” Billy said.

“You know,” Steve dropped his voice to a whisper. “The pretty one. You said you came to see the pretty one. She’s just through there, now’s your chance.”

Billy burst out laughing. Steve looked confused.

“Yeah. I don’t think I have a chance there, Princess.”

“Why not?” Steve demanded as though he was offended on Billy’s behalf. “You’re smart and nice and funny. And smart. You just need to show her that.”

“Yeah. I don’t think that’s going to help me any.”

“Sure it will,” said Steve earnestly.

Billy laughed again.

“You hearing this, Robin,” Billy called under the wall.

“Yeah. Believe it or not these stalls are not sound proof,” she replied.

“So let me just check,” Billy called back. “If I was the smartest, funniest and nicest person you knew, would you be interested?”

“Nope,” came the quick replied.

Steve looked more confused than ever.

“Don’t worry, Stevie. She can explain it to you later,” Billy said with a laugh. “Besides _she’s_ not the pretty one.”

“Thanks a lot,” came Robin’s sarcastic voice through the wall.

“I mean, sure you’re pretty, but you know I’m…”

“Yeah. I know,” Billy could hear the smirk in her voice.

“Know what?” asked Steve.

Billy looked him. He could do this. Steve had already kissed him tonight. Surely Billy had at least as much courage as that. He was going tell him.

And if he was in, he might as well be all in.

Billy lowered his head, bit his lip and looked up at Steve through his eyelashes. When Steve’s breath hitched, Billy knew he’d made the right move. He let a familiar, teasing smirk slide onto his face, dropped his voice to a purr and said, “you’re the pretty one, pretty boy.”

Steve’s eyes widened in understanding. And a second later he had flung himself at Billy and crashed his lips against the younger boy’s.

Billy smiled into the kiss and pushed Steve back slightly.

“Slow down, pretty boy. We got time.”

He slid his hand to the back of Steve’s neck and pulled him gently back in. Billy tilted his head and kissed Steve. This time was better. It started softly. Their lips met again and again. Billy massaged the back of Steve’s neck with his fingertips and Steve whimpered. He sounded perfect. Just like all those times Billy had imagined it, but better. So much better.

Billy breathed in sharply as Steve lifted a hand to Billy’s hip, sliding it under his shirt. He spread his palm over Billy’s flat stomach then drew it back, scraping his fingernails along Billy’s abs as he went.

And suddenly Billy broke. The kiss were no longer gentle. It was rough, animalistic. He kissed Steve with the all hunger and desperation he’d spent years repressing. Pushed up into Steve’s space and kept going until Steve’s head hit the opposite wall. Steve’s sound of pain turned into a groan as Billy slid his tongue across Steve’s bottom lip and into his opening mouth.

The door banged open and Dustin’s voice cried, “I told you to stay in the God damn theatre. Robin, where the hell are Steve and the psycho?”

“Uh, next cubical buddy. You might want to give them a sec though. They’ve finally had the revelation we’ve all been waiting for, and… well, they didn’t want to waste any more time. Let’s just put it that way.”

“Revelation?” said Dustin as Erika said, “Ewww, in the toilets?”

In their cubicle Billy had backed off, breathing heavily. Steve looked completely dazed. His head was still leaning back against the wall and he had a soft smile on his face.

Billy pushed himself up off the floor and gave Steve a soft kick to the shin. Steve’s eyes seem to slide back into focus as he held his hand out for Billy to pull him up.

They opened the stall door, still holding hands. Before anyone else had a chance to speak, Billy had pulled Steve passed Erika and Dustin towards the bathroom door. He peered out to see a crowd of people leaving the theatre.

“Well what are you lot waiting for,” he said. “We’ve got some escaping to do.”

Dustin hesitated. He looked from Billy to Steve and then down to their joined hands. A look of understanding came into his eyes.

“You have got to be shitting me!”

Steve smiled at the ground and Billy gave Dustin a wink.

“You better believe we’re going to be talking about this later, Steve,” Dustin threatened. “But right now, Billy’s right, we’ve got some escaping to do.”

They left the bathrooms and joined the crowd moving towards the exits. 

“Okay. Easy. We just gotta blend in,” Dustin said. “Act normal and we’ll all be okay.”

Billy wasn’t sure he knew what normal was anymore. In just the last few hours he’d discovered that there was a hidden underground maze of Russian tunnels right under their feet. He’d been knocked out cold by a Russian solider. Gotten high off some kind of tranquiliser. Seen a car disappear into the future when it hit 88 miles an hour. And kissed Steve Harrington. Billy’s mind got stuck on that last one as he played it over in his mind.

“Shit. Shit. Shit. Go back. Go back.”

He was brought back to his senses as Robin shoved him back away from the mall exit. Over her shoulder he saw the reason for their change in direction.

Armed men in black suits stopping each member of the crowd as they moved past. A shout went up from one of them. They’d spotted Dustin.

“Run!” yelled Steve.

They tore back through the crowd shoving people out of the way as they hurtled toward the escalators. They were roped off but Robin barely hesitated before flinging herself down the space between them like a slide. The rest of them followed her, down into the food court.

“Where do we go now?” Erika hissed.

“This way. Behind the here,” Robin said as she lead the way over to _The Great Cookie_ and ducked behind it the counter.

They waited in silence. Trying to slow their breathing. The soft sound of footsteps coming down the escalator. Words whispered into a radio. The movement of fabric against fabric as the men closed in on them.

The quiet was suddenly broken by the rumble of a motor and a car alarm so loud that it had to be _inside_ the mall.

Billy remembered passing one of those competition cars on the way through to Scoops when he’d been visiting Steve. But there’s no way they’d have left keys in the ignition. So how the hell had it started up?

Billy chanced a look up over the counter just in time to see the car flying through the air and taking out the gunmen as it crashed into the Tepanyaki place across the food court.

“What the fuck?” Billy breathed.

He looked around and there, on the mezzanine level, stood Max, Lucas, Nancy, Jonathan, Will and Mike. El, was in front of them with her arm outstretched as though she had… but that didn’t make any sense.

Steve clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“See. Super powers. I told you.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter specific warning: description of cutting El's leg open (nothing that wasn't in the show, but just in case).

“Steve!” Nancy cried as their group came down the escalator supporting El. “What is going on?”

“And who were those men? And what is _he_ doing here?” Jonathon gestured to Billy as he spoke.

“Yeah, and what the hell is my little sister doing here?” Lucas added.

“Uh well…” Steve, apparently unsure of which question to answer first, just started from the beginning.

“Well we cracked this secret code that Dustin heard on the big radio thing and—“

“Robin cracked it,” interjected Dustin.

“Yeah, Robin did,” Steve agreed.

“Wait, who’s Robin?” asked Nancy.

“Me. That’s me,” said Robin, raising her hand. “I’m Robin. I work with Steve at, you know,” she pointed at her nametag, “Scoops.”

“Yeah, so she works with me, and she cracked the code, and that’s how we found about the Russians.”

“Russians? What Russians?” Jonathon asked.

“The Russians. The Russians,” said Steve impatiently waving wildly at the men strewn across the floor.

“They’re Russians?”

“Commie bastards,” added Erika.

“Language,” said Lucas. Erika stuck out her tongue at him.

“Anyway,” said Steve loudly. “The Russians are here in Hawkins. And they drugged us, but we’re fine now and…”

“You got drugged?” asked Nancy.

“Who cares, he said they’re fine now, keep telling the story,” said Mike. Nancy smacked him on the shoulder.

“So this is all about the Russians? Not about the gate?” ask Jonathon.

“It’s completely about the gate and also the Russians,” Dustin yelled.

“And the mind flayer,” said Nancy.

“Wait, he’s back?” said Steve running his hands through his hair.

“Yes!” said Mike and Will together.

“He’s back and he’s using people. Actual melted people to make this monster,” said Max.

Billy was barely following any of this. They all seemed to be piecing the puzzle together, but he had no idea where to begin. Even Max seemed to know more than him. He looked around for El, hoping she could make sense of all of this.

She was standing a few feet away, using a table to hold herself up. But as Billy watched her she collapsed onto the floor.

“Hey! Are you okay?” He ran to kneel beside her.

“Get away from her!” Billy was shoved sideways as Mike crouched down over El. 

“My leg,” she gasped.

Jonathon moved to undo the bandage around her calf. Billy watched in horror as he revealed a swollen gash in her flesh. Black veins were spreading from the wound and something shivered.

El screamed and grasped at Mike’s shirt. Tears rolled down her face, her faced screwed up against the pain.

There’s something _in_ there, thought Billy.

“What do we do? What do we do?” Mike said frantically. He looked around at the others. Billy was the first to move.

“Where are you going?” yelled Max.

“Just keep her talking. Keep her awake,” he yelled over his shoulder.

He vaulted over the counter of a Chinese restaurant and started opening draws wildly. A wooden spoon. Gloves. But he also needed…

“Come on. Come on. Yes!”

In the third draw down he found a knife. It looked a little blunt, but it would have to do. He ran over to the stovetop and flicked the gas on. He held the blade in the fire for a few seconds then turned and vaulted back over the counter.

He sprinted back to the group and threw himself down beside El.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to get it out okay,” he told her. “Get her to bite down on this.” He handed the wooden spoon to Mike.

“What are you going to do?” Mike demanded.

“What does it look like,” Billy said, holding up the knife.

“Mike…” El whimpered.

Mike looked down at El and then back up to Billy. “Okay. Okay, do it,” he said, placing the wooden spoon in her mouth.

“This is going to hurt,” Billy said and he pressed the knife into her flesh.

El’s scream was muffled slightly by the wooden spoon, but it was still one of the worst sounds Billy had ever heard. He tried to block it out as he dug the knife deeper, slicing right beside where he could see the thing in her leg moving. He finished the cut and now there was nothing for it. He dropped the knife and worked his hand into the wound, searching for whatever this thing was.

El screamed louder still. She twisted and writhed as the others held her down. The thing seemed to know Billy was after it. It was moving away from Billy’s incision, burrowing further into El’s leg. Billy dug deeper and she screamed again.

“No. No. Stop.”

Billy pulled his hand away.

“I can do it. I can do it,” El breathed.

Billy watched as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. She held her hand over the wound and tensed. It was almost as though there was a visible force connecting her hand to the thing inside her leg. Billy almost see her hauling it to the surface. Her whole body was straining with the effort.

She let out and ear-splitting wail and drew a small slug-like creature with teeth from her wound. It writhed in the air above El. And somehow it was screaming too. Not a human scream. A sound unlike Billy had ever heard. Monstrous. It sent shivers down his spine.

With a last gasp El flung it across the floor of the food court. It slide across the polished concrete, leaving a smear of El’s blood behind it and came to rest in front of Chief Hopper.

Wait. When had Hopper arrived, thought Billy. And Jonathon’s mom, she we here too. And some guy with a beard Billy didn’t recognise.

Before Billy could process the scene in front of him Hopper had leaned forward and stomped on the thing from El’s leg. It let out a final screech as it exploded under his boot.

Hopper looked up at group. They must be a sight thought Billy.

Billy, Steve and Robin covered in blood, eyes bloodshot, still looking high as hell. The kids out of breath and terrified. All of them gathered around El, who would have looked like she’d been in an actual warzone if it weren’t for the bright yellow shirt and suspenders. Littered around them were the bodies of Russian soldiers, and behind them a car lay on its side with wheels still spinning.

Billy knew he would have freaked out if he’d burst into the mall and seen all this. But the adults seemed more relieved than anything. Like they’d been expecting much worst and having to stamp on an interdimensional slug monster was all in a day’s work.

Hopper lowered the gun he was holding and said simply, “alright, someone start explaining what the hell is going on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found it pretty hard to write this chapter in a way that started to bring everyone's story lines together. Obviously I'm relying heaving on y'all having watched the season and knowing what's going on with everyone else. Hopefully it's still making sense.


	9. Chapter 9

Billy had wandered away from the group slightly as the adults worked to make sense of everything the kids were saying. He hadn’t really been keeping up before, so there was no point trying now.

He spotted Robin who, like him, had seemingly given up on trying to understand what was happening and was instead sitting on the edge of the mall fountain running her hand back and forth through the water.

“Hey,” he said, sitting down next to her. “You got any idea what’s going on?”

“I was vague on it when it was just Russians and bioluminescent plasma,” she smiled weakly. “Throw in multiple dimensions and a fucking creepy leech monster burrowing into someone’s leg and I’m totally lost.”

“Yeah, me too. Figured I’d leave it to the geniuses over there to figure it out.” He gestured back to where the others were huddled around some sort of diagram that the weird guy with the beard had spread out on a table.

“Yeah, I don’t know how genius they are. I mean, they’re the ones who got us into this mess.”

“Oh I dunno about that, Robin,” Billy smirked. “I seem to remember a certain someone breaking a code and leading her friends down into a secret Russian headquarters.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that,” she laughed.

Billy shrugged. “Some things worked out.” He glanced over at Steve.

Robin followed his gaze and smiled. “I guess sometimes all it takes is torture at the hands of Russian spies and the use of mind altering substances.”

“Wish I’d know that earlier,” he smirked. “Would have saved me all that time I spent jerking it to him in the shower.”

“Eww. I really did not need to hear that, Billy,” she said wrinkling her nose.

“Sorry,” he said with a laugh that indicated he was not sorry at all.

Billy looked back over to the group. They were breaking into groups, seemingly having come to a decision about what to do next. Steve strode over to them with Erika and Dustin in tow.

“We’re going to help Dustin with his radio thing up… where are we going again?”

“Weathertop”

“Weather top? As in Lord of the Rings, when they’re on their way to Rivendell?” Billy said, confused.

Dustin gaped at him and Billy could feel a blush creeping up his neck.

He had read the story obsessively when his mother had been in hospital. Escaping to Middle Earth had been a way to get away from Neil when it all got too much. Normally he wouldn’t have said anything, but something about being around Steve and Robin made him forget about the walls he usually had up – even in the midst of a life-threatening interdimensional meltdown.

“ _You_ know Lord of the Rings?” Dustin asked.

Steve put a hand on Billy’s shoulder. “Told you he was smart,” he said to Dustin.

Dustin didn’t look convinced. His brow furrowed and he narrowed his eyes at Billy as though searching for something to explain how Billy could possibly know what Weathertop meant. After a few seconds of scrutiny with no further explanation forthcoming, he seemed let it slide.

Billy, on the other hand, was still trying to get over the swooping sensation in his stomach from hearing Steve tell people he was smart.

Yes, Steve had asked him if he was smart. He’d even suggested that Billy could get into college. But this was different. Steve had stood beside him, with a hand on his shoulder, and actually told other people that Billy was smart. Said it like he was proud of him. No one had ever done that. At least not since Billy’s mom had died.

Billy’s moment of shocked pride was broken when Dustin, having grudgingly accepted that Billy had read Lord of the Rings, threw a set of keys to Steve and said, “come on Scoop’s Troop, let’s move out.”

Billy turned to the others with a look of disgust on his face. “Scoops Troop? Really?”

“Hey, I’m with you,” said Erika. “I wanted Commie Crushers, but I was overruled.”

They headed out of the mall to where a yellow convertible with a license plating reading TODFTHR was parked.

“Whose ride is this?” Billy questioned.

“Apparently Hopper and Mrs. Byers commandeered it from some guy at the gas station,” Dustin said, opening the back door and sliding across the other side.

“That sounds like a fancy way of saying stole to me,” said Billy.

“I like commandeered,” said Steve. “Makes us sound like pirates.”

“Yeah? You have a thing for pirates, baby?” Billy hadn’t meant to add the endearment. It had just rolled off his tongue. Steve seemed to have enjoyed it. He gave Billy a shy smile as he hopped into the driver’s seat. 

Erika, on the other hand, scrunched up her face and looked from Steve to Billy. “Barf. It’s bad enough when Lucas has Max over. But you two are a hundred times worse.”

Billy chose to ignore the comment and made to get in the front seat. Erika’s hand flung out to stop him.

“Uhh, I don’t think so. If you sit up there with him, he’ll get distracted and we’ll never make it. Robin, you’re up front.”

“Sorry, rules are rules,” Robin said with an innocent shrug as she slipped past Billy into the front seat.

Billy looked down at Erika.

“You waiting for an invitation? Get in the back.”

Billy couldn’t help but obey. He scooted over towards Dustin and Erika climbed in behind him.

When he was safely squished between the two children, Erika slammed the door shut behind them and Steve stepped on the gas. 

* * *

Weathertop turned out to be a muddy hill overlooking Hawkins that lacked somewhat of the majesty of its counterpart from Lord of the Rings. Dustin assured them, however, that it would give them the best chance of staying in communication with Griswald Family and Bald Eagle.

Billy wasn’t a hundred percent sure he actually knew who the call signs referred to. But at this point their job basically seemed to be keeping Dustin company. So he let it go without a question.

“Bald Eagle, do you copy? This is Scoops Troop, do you copy?”

“Yes. I copy,” came an exasperated voice, crackling with radio static.

Billy tuned them out and wandered away. Dustin could obviously take it from here.

It was a clear night. A crescent moon illuminating the hillside. He lay back and looked up at the stars.

Everything out here seemed so peaceful. It was hard to imagine that the town below was crawling with Russian soldiers and, if he believed Max’s story, some kind of people-melting, tentacled, goo monster. Sure, the thing in El’s leg had been freaky, but did he really believe that there was a 30 foot monster on the loose?

He heard the grass swish and looked over to see Robin laying herself down next to him, eyes turned skyward.

“You know anything about stars?” she asked.

“Not really. Few constellations maybe. And that big bright thing over there – that’s the moon.”

“Thanks, I’d been wondering about that,” she said sarcastically.

“You know anything?”

“Some stuff. Star signs and things. Astrology”

“My mom knew about that stuff. Used to talk about it all the time.”

“Used to?”

“Yeah, she died when I was nine.”

“Back when you were living in California?”

“Yeah. We couldn’t really see the stars too well in LA. But sometimes we would drive north. Go camping. And she’d point the constellations out to me then. Tell me about how they moved, what they meant. Don’t remember it much now though.”

“What’s your sign?” Robin asked.

“Start of November. Scorpio,” said Billy.

“Of course you are,” Robin said knowingly. She searched the sky. “It’s there.” She was pointing over towards the horizon. “See those three brighter stars, close together.”

“Yeah, I think so”

“And then just up to the right there’s like a line of them going down.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s the tail. The scorpion’s stinger. That’s you.”

Billy nodded. He tried to speak but his throat felt clogged somehow. Robin had reminded him so forcefully of his mom. He wanted to thank her for showing him, but the words couldn’t seem to find their way out of his body. Robin appeared to understand his silence and reached out to put her hand over Billy’s.

They lay in silence for a while. Dustin had gone quiet too. Billy wasn’t sure what their goal was, but silence seemed like a sign of success. Or at least a sign that nothing had gone wrong yet.

Just as he had the thought, Erika’s voice broke through the night air.

“Uh, guys…”

Billy sat up to look at her. Her brow was creased with worry and she was pointing back down towards the town. Billy followed her line of sight and immediately saw what had caught her attention.

The power at the Starcourt mall was flickering in and out like some sort of building-wide disco. Before Billy could ask what that meant Dustin was screaming into the radio.

“Griswald Family. This is Scoop’s Troop. Please confirm your safety. Griswald Family. This is Scoop’s Troop. Please confirm your safety.”

At first the only answer was static. But then, a horrific scream filled the hilltop. It sounded just like the thing from El’s leg only magnified by a thousand, Billy thought wildly. It was enough to convince him that Max had been telling the truth. The melted-people monster was real. Real and attacking everyone at Starcourt.

Steve was off. Sprinting away down the hill.

“Where are you going?” Erika yelled.

“To get them out of there. Stay here. Contact Hopper.” He disappeared down the slope. Robin followed after him and Billy leapt up to go.

“Wait, Billy!” Dustin yelled.” Stay in touch.” He threw a walkie talkie at Billy. Billy caught it and tore after Steve into the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just really love of the idea of Billy and Robin being friends..


	10. Chapter 10

Steve pulled up outside the mall entrance with a screech of tires. The lights were still flickering ominously as the three of them hopped out of the car and made their way into the mall and towards the food court. The monster had stopped its terrifying screams but as they approached Billy could hear what sounded like something large crashing into walls and knocking over tables.

He and Robin fell in behind Steve as they crept quietly towards the source of the noise. Peering around a corner they saw it. It was all Billy could do not to yell in shock. The thing was massive. Easily 30 feet. Spider like, with huge legs made of what looked like rotting flesh.

Heather. Billy suddenly thought. Heather was probably somewhere in there, melted down into a goo. He felt sick. He could tell by the way Robin had drawn back with a hand over her mouth that she was feeling the same way.

Steve seemed to be taking it the best, as though this was exactly what he was expecting. He wasn’t paying any attention to Billy or Robin, his eyes were darting all over the monster as though trying to figure out what it was doing.

Billy looked back towards it and saw something he hadn’t see the first time. Tentacle-like arms seemed to be extended out from the thing’s body into various shops on the opposite side of the atrium. It was searching for something.

“The kids,” Steve whispered. “They must be hiding over there.”

“Well not for much longer,” Billy said. “Those tentacles are going to find them any time now.”

“We need to distract it,” said Robin.

“Okay. Okay, what do we do?” said Steve.

But before the Billy could even think of a suggestion, Dustin’s voice crackled out loudly over the radio he was holding.

“Billy? Did you make it? Griswald Family, are they okay?”

With a roar the monster withdrew its tentacles into its body and began to turn towards the noise.

“Fucking run!” cried Steve. The three of them pelted away across the food court, dodging a huge foot and diving forward to avoid a tentacle as it slammed into the wall behind them. The air was thick with rubble and dust as the creature smashed through the mall in chase.

“In here,” yelled Steve. He led them back into Scoops, flying past the tables, over the counter, through the back of the shop, and out into the corridor behind. He slammed the door shut as soon as Billy and Robin had hurtled through behind him. A second later there came a sound of flesh smashing into metal and a dent appeared in the door.

The sound came again and again. The door buckled on its hinges.

“It’d say we have about 5 second before the corridor is filled with monster tentacles. Anyone got a plan?” Billy asked.

Steve and Robin looked back him wide-eyed and terrified. Billy took that as a no. He balled up his fists and turned to face the door. Then, without warning, it was quiet.

“You think… You think it gave up?” asked Robin, shakily.

“Nah…” said Billy slowly. “ I think something distracted it.”

“Shit, the kids. You don’t think—“

Billy’s radio crackled back into life.

“Billy! Billy!” came Dustin’s voice. “I don’t care what kind of life and death situation you’re in – please just fucking tell me one of you knows Planck’s Constant.”

“Planck’s what?” said Steve. He ripped the radio from Billy. “Dustin we don’t have time for this shit now, the others are in trouble.”

“Steve if we don’t get this God damn number we are all going to die.”

Steve looked up at Billy. “Please tell me you were paying attention in whatever class we learned this.”

Billy shook his head. He could remember something from a physics class maybe.

It had been raining that day. He’d spent the lesson gazing out the window to avoid all the looks he had been getting. He’d been sporting a black eye and a cut on his lip. He could remember that. Neil had left his rings on for that particular beating.

Even as he tried to remember it his mind went fuzzy with the kind of frantic buzzing he knew so well. The harder he tried to recall anything, the louder the buzzing in his mind got. His body tensed, his mind was filling with hot shame and his stomach rolled. The same it always did whenever he saw his injured face.

And then there were brown eyes in front of him. Steve was there holding Billy’s face between his hands. Calming the buzzing that had threatened to swallow Billy up. His mind cleared and something else bubbled to the surface.

He could see Ms. Hall writing a number on the chalk board. She was talking about photons, making them all write down an equation. He took the radio back from Steve and held down the talk button.

“Planck’s Constant is 6.6207004.”

A beat of silence and then… “Billy you just saved the word,” Dustin was yelling.

Before Billy could process that, Robin was pulling him and Steve back to the door.

“Come on. We have to get the kids.”

Fear erupted in Billy as his mind conjured up a picture of Max facing that monster down. He ripped open the door and tore back towards the atrium. He rounded the corner and skidded to halt, trying to take in the sight in front of him.

El was lying motionless on the floor with the monster looming over her. But it wasn’t attacking. Because somehow, and Billy was having trouble processing this, but somehow there were fireworks exploding all around the creature. Every time it turned it was hit by another coming from a different direction.

“Look up. The kids,” Steve cried.

Billy looked towards the mezzanine floor to see the rest of the group lighting firework after firework and lobbing them down onto the creature. Catherine wheels and sky rockets rained down on the thing as it smashed into posts and stumbled into walls.

Max was up there too, Billy saw. Throwing the fireworks as hard as she could, a look of fierce anger on her face.

Billy looked back down to see El stirring on the ground. This was their chance to get her out of there. While the thing was distracted. Without a word to Steve or Robin, Billy took off towards her.

El was pale and sweaty. The wound on her leg was bleeding freely. She looked up at Billy with glassy eyes.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got you. You’re going to be okay. I’ve got you.” Billy bent down to pick her up. But something stopped him in his tracks. Silence. The explosions from the fireworks had stopped. He looked up just in time to see a tentacle racing towards El.

When Steve remembered this moment in the years to come, absolute terror for Billy was his main emotion. But somewhere mixed in with that feeling was a spark of reckless joy. Because of course Billy-fucking-Hargrove would try to right hook a 30 foot monster made out of melted people.

Billy hadn’t made a conscious decision to fight. He just knew that El would be dead if he didn’t do something. He was holding a tentacle back, screaming with the effort. And then, from nowhere, another tentacle sprang towards him, and another. They tore at his sides, lifting him up into the air. He felt himself go limp.

Through his dimming eyes he saw a final tentacle flying towards his chest. He tried to cry out. Brace himself. But he couldn’t remember how to move.

Then suddenly he was falling. He crashed into the floor. Face down. His head was pounding, he couldn’t feel his body. Somewhere above him he could hear an ear-splitting screech, thrashing, a huge crash, and then silence.

Someone was turning him over.

The last thing he remembered before nothingness closed in around him was Steve Harrington’s tear-stained face looking down at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to give this fic an end that you could read either way - but in my mind Joyce turns the keys and closes the gate just before that final tentacle hits Billy in the chest, so they are able to save him. 
> 
> I'm thinking about writing an epilogue/sequel fic about the rest of Steve and Billy's summer (now monster free). But as this is my first ever fic I'm bit nervous about whether people will like it, so I just wanted to get this up and see what y'all thought before committing to that. 
> 
> So yeah, let me know what you thought of the fic and whether there'd be any point in my writing a continuation.
> 
> (Also, sorry for deleting Suzie from this fic! Her and Dustin are great, but I really wanted Billy to be the one to get the Planck's Constant thing).
> 
> UPDATE: I sat down today to plan a cute lil epilogue... turns out I have 10 chapters worth of plans for the rest of Steve and Billy's summer. So there'll be a sequel fic. I have already started writing it, but I'm back at uni now (I actually happened to have week off right after season 3 came out, so I got this fic done super quick), so it might take me a bit longer to write. I'm thinking around the end of July??

**Author's Note:**

> Hitting upload on my first ever chapter was kinda scary. It starts slow but I've written all the way up to the end of season 3's events, so it'll get going soon! Hope you liked it so far.


End file.
